From 1900 to 1902 he served in Paris as military attaché of Sweden and Norway. On 9 June 1903 he was appointed as Minister of Defence as a part of the Blehr's First Cabinet. He held this position until 21 October 1903, when the cabinet fell. In the same year he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was assigned to work as a military consultant at the Council of State Division in Stockholm. He would provide valuable information in the buildup for the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, which the Liberal Party supported. In 1905, then, he was made director of Telegrafverket, running the state monopoly on telegraph services. Telegrafverket is considered a predecessor of today's telecommunications company Telenor.