Swedish will to defend

The civil defence and the psychological defence have been assigned the task to strengthen Swedish "will to defend" (similar notions: national will, defence will, willingness to fight, morale and others). Since the needs and perceived threats of Sweden's total defence have changed, a broader understanding of the concept will to defend is required, which is not restricted to the military dimension. This study investigates differences between societal groups, in three variants of will to defend: personal, generic and supporting will to defend. Women, young adults and those with no basic military training appear to show weaker (mainly personal) will to defend. In addition, socio-economic factors seem to be associated with some differences in will to defend. Measures to strengthen the will to defend of the public should be preceded by analyses of what are the purposes of this will - why it is important. For example, creating a total defence widely accepted by the public, on the one hand, and securing the future recruitment needs of the armed forces, on the other hand, probably call for different kinds of measures. A challenge when it comes to information based measures is that it is hard to identify the appropriate target group. The most significant observed differences in this study concern personal will to defend. The differences related to the generic and supporting will to defend are generally less considerable. Thus, measures to strengthen these wills need not to be adapted to specific target groups in the same extent as for measures to strengthen the personal will to defend. The will to defend should be measured and interpreted in a more nuanced manner on the individual and group levels. Attention should also be given to the will to defend at higher organisational levels. The will to defend also needs to be understood in a contemporary security context, not only limited to the case of an attack on Sweden.