In his thesis, Martin Neuding Skoog shows how war and war preparations affected political development and changed the social organization of the Swedish Empire during the period 1450-1550. The study's institutional analysis presents for the first time a comprehensive and detailed picture of how the war organization of the late medieval Swedish empire looked like and in what way changing military conditions over time also affected the development towards the early modern state of the Vasa dynasty. The extensive empirical study deals with the importance of the salvation group, the church institution, the urban bourgeoisie, the peasants and the foreign warriors during the period.

In the larger social process that is highlighted, the transition from a coordinating to an organizing state is the central theme. The chronological delineation of the study innovatively bridges the usual periodization of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, providing new perspectives on a particularly important political transition period in Swedish history. The author shows, for example, how Gustav Vasa's elimination of military competitors, innovative use of resources and introduction of a tax-financed war organization became instrumental for the ability to achieve political and dynastic consolidation in the kingdom. The study constitutes an important piece of the puzzle to illustrate how Swedish society was transformed from a medieval kingdom to an early modern state in military and political terms.