Alexander Sorg, postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Centre Research Fellow, presents his research on the role of regional conflicts in changing trends in the willingness to fight for one's country. This event is part of the International Security Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for International Security.
Scholars have found citizens’ willingness to fight for their country has decreased globally since the 1980s. Some posit this as the underpinning of the "long peace," contending that rising economic prosperity enhances opportunities and decreases the tolerance for sacrificing one’s life (wealth-value link). For others, notably governments trying to recruit military personnel, this trend is viewed as detrimental to one’s country’s defense capability. However, Alexander Sorg and his co-authors show that this diminishing willingness to fight has not only decelerated in the last decade but has even reversed in some nations. Contrary to the notion of a continuous, almost teleological decline, Sorg maintains that alongside previously identified factors such as the wealth-value link, national pride, and threat perceptions, beliefs about the global order also play a pivotal role in shaping citizens' willingness to fight. In this presentation, Sorg will propose that regional conflicts can reorient citizens' fundamental foreign policy beliefs—from seeing an increasingly harmonious global community to recognizing its inherent confrontations—thus amplifying their willingness to fight. The study's empirical analysis finds strong support for the notion that regional conflict increases citizens’ willingness to fight.
Speaker
Alexander Sorg is a postdoctoral researcher at the Free University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Security. He submitted his dissertation in May 2023 at the Hertie School’s Centre for International Security, having earned a scholarship supported by a Stanton Foundation-funded project. His research interests include nuclear weapons, military alliances, and citizens' willingness to fight. He has published in the NATO Defense College Research Papers and contributed opinion pieces to War on the Rocks as well as various German and Dutch newspapers.
