If a war were to break out, would you be willing to fight for your country? This is a shortened version of the question used in the World Values Survey and the European Values Study since the early 1980s to assess citizens’ willingness to fight.
Over the past few years, the willingness to fight has drawn greater attention, especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This war underscored the importance of citizen morale in resisting an invader. Ukrainians mounted a strong resistance against the invading force. If Ukrainian society had simply accepted Russia’s assault, the war might have ended sooner, with Ukraine losing.
But what about readiness to fight for NATO member states? To find this, the willingness-to-fight question was asked, for the first time, in a single poll across all NATO member states. A poll commissioned by Riga Stradins University, in cooperation with the Center for Geopolitical Studies Riga, was conducted in September and October 2025. With more than 31,000 respondents, the survey was nationally representative in each country.
According to the poll, the five countries with the highest share of citizens willing to fight for their country are Turkey (88 percent), Albania (69 percent), Sweden (66 percent), Finland (64 percent), and Montenegro (63 percent). Completing the top 10 are Greece (also 63 percent), Norway (61 percent), Lithuania (52 percent), Poland, and Slovenia (both 49 percent).
The strong willingness to fight in Turkey and the Nordic states, especially Sweden and Finland, is not surprising—previous studies corroborate this. The Turkish case has been explained by the volatile geopolitical context, and the Nordic case by the desire to preserve their lifestyles, combined with the threats from Russia.
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