Paper short abstract:

Norwegian soldiers show a change in their will to serve and motivation for military service in empirical data from 2009 until 2022. In a decade the incentive to sacrifice your life or taking someone else’s, seems to have changed from the individual and personal to value based and societal reasons.

Paper long abstract:

During several field studies and interviews among Norwegian soldiers from 2009 until 2022, I asked the question: “As a soldier, in the extreme consequence, you have to be willing to take or give life (kill or die). In such a case, whom do you do it for? What makes it worth it for you?” The earlier answers entailed, “the lad beside me in the trenches”, “my girlfriend/wife”, “mom”, or someone close. The later answers, although still containing loved ones, have pivoted somewhat to, “the values we have in Norway”, “our society”, and “the Norwegian culture”. Today’s soldiers seem more motivated by societal features than before.

The reasons are several, the enrollment of conscripts have decreased in number, and conscription service has become popular. Highly motivated persons with good academic and athletic results are recruited. These are somewhat more “political correct” than before, which also might be a reflection on today’s Norwegian youth. Another likely reason are the Norwegian Defense’s commercial campaigns over the last years. They have focused on Norwegian values, and that a defense is there to ensure that “nothing happens”. The last reason might be the international security climate. The victory of Trump in the American presidential election, the surge in “fake news”, “disinformation”, “online influence campaigns”, and “echo chambers” impacted young people worrying more regarding public safety and cyber security issues.

In February/March 2022 there are newspaper interviews with soldiers in northern Norway, on the Russian border, saying, “shit suddenly got real” and “I get stressed when the war is so close to Norway”. The war in Ukraine might shift the soldiers’ attitudes and motivation even further. Seeing that this is a long lasting study, I will proceed to collect empirical data on this question.