{"id":14839,"date":"2025-09-28T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/?p=14839"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:00:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T11:00:29","slug":"patriots-and-national-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/patriots-and-national-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots and national defense. Love without duty?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The many faces of patriotism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A patriot loves their country, marks national holidays, votes and\u2026 goes to war for the homeland? Not necessarily. <strong>Love of country doesn\u2019t always translate into readiness to defend it<\/strong>. That\u2019s the clear message of new research in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/09662839.2025.2540091\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">European Security<\/a><\/em>. Ralph Sundberg (Swedish Defence University) and Gina Gustavsson (Uppsala University) studied more than <strong>4,000<\/strong> citizens in Sweden and Denmark and uncovered surprising patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cPrevious studies typically focused on national pride as the sole factor, but our analysis shows national identity is multidimensional. Different aspects can pull people in different directions when it comes to defense willingness,\u201d<\/em> Sundberg explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Patriots and national defense: who actually wants to fight?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The study reveals a paradox of modern patriotism. Factors such as national attachment, cultural pride, and nationalist chauvinism \u2014 the belief that one\u2019s own country is superior \u2014 correlate <strong>positively<\/strong> with readiness to defend. But \u201cuncritical patriotism\u201d works in the opposite direction. How do the authors define that last category?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cOur findings show that people with an attitude of \u2018my country, right or wrong\u2019 actually display <strong>lower defense willingness than others<\/strong>. This challenges the traditional view that strong nationalism always bolsters the will to defend the country,\u201d<\/em> Sundberg told <em><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-09-national-identity-affect-willingness-defend.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Phys.org<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Sweden stands out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sweden offers a fascinating case. Unlike neighboring Finland, Norway, or Denmark, it hasn\u2019t experienced war or occupation in modern times. Even so, defense willingness there is higher than in many other European countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThat makes Sweden a unique case. Our study shows that historical experience of war isn\u2019t necessary for strong defense willingness. Instead, pride in a country\u2019s democracy, culture and history can play a decisive role,\u201d<\/em> the researcher notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Worth reading:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/india-pakistan-conflict-are-we-near-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">India\u2013Pakistan conflict: are we near war?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A new lens on civic engagement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The results matter for defense policymakers. Willingness to defend stems not only from loyalty to the state or its symbols, but from a blend of emotional attachment, cultural pride and a sense of community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cIf we want to understand defense willingness, we must grasp the feelings and values people link to their nation. It\u2019s not just about military capabilities or threats, but how people perceive their community and identity,\u201d <\/em>Sundberg concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amid recent incidents involving Russian drones violating Polish airspace, many Poles may have quietly asked themselves: am I ready to fight for Poland? As the research suggests, not every patriot is eager to take up arms \u2014 a reminder that the link between patriots and national defense is anything but simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Read the original article:<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/holistic.news\/patrioci-i-obrona-ojczyzny-nie-chca-isc-na-front\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Niepokoj\u0105ce badanie. Kochaj\u0105 sw\u00f3j kraj, ale&nbsp;nie&nbsp;b\u0119d\u0105 go&nbsp;broni\u0107<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patriot isn\u2019t always patriot. Researchers at the Swedish Defence University and Uppsala University surveyed 4,000+ people in Sweden and Denmark \u2014 and found that patriots and national defense don\u2019t always go hand in hand. Uncritical patriotism doesn\u2019t boost willingness to fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":14842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[649,1844,1846,1847,897,1845,798,609],"class_list":["post-14839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-truth-and-goodness","tag-community","tag-army","tag-national-identity","tag-nationalism","tag-patriotism","tag-patriots-and-national-defense","tag-psychology","tag-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Patriots and national defense. Love without duty?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New Swedish\u2013Danish data shows patriots and national defense don\u2019t always align. Uncritical patriotism can reduce willingness to fight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/patriots-and-national-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriots and national defense. Love without duty?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Swedish\u2013Danish data shows patriots and national defense don\u2019t always align. Uncritical patriotism can reduce willingness to fight.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/patriots-and-national-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Holistic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/portalHolisticNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-28T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/patriots-and-national-defense.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Maciej Bartusik\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@news_holistic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@news_holistic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Maciej Bartusik\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/holistic.news\\\/en\\\/patriots-and-national-defense\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/holistic.news\\\/en\\\/patriots-and-national-defense\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Maciej Bartusik\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/holistic.news\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0758fb0cf338b71ce51e2da415bc266c\"},\"headline\":\"Patriots and national defense. 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