Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, countries around the world have been strengthening their military forces. The photo shows members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces waiting for orders. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] The aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is impacting the entire world. Price increases, as well as supply and demand instability in the food and energy sectors, are occurring in various places. In particular, as the war drags into a prolonged conflict, signs of a Cold War revival are emerging, heightening security anxieties among citizens of various countries. Nations around the world have begun to significantly strengthen their military capabilities, including increasing defense spending to around 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Recently, the World Values Survey (WVS) released responses from countries worldwide to the question, "If a war breaks out, would you fight for your country?" The WVS, a nonprofit social science research organization, has been publishing survey results on social culture, religion, environment, security, and other fields since 1981 through cooperation with social scientists from various countries.
According to the 2021 survey data released by WVS, 67.5% of respondents in South Korea answered that they would fight. This rate ranked 40th out of 79 countries surveyed, representing about half, and showed a decrease compared to the past. Those who answered they would not fight accounted for 32.6%. This percentage, which was only 6.5% in 1981, has shown a continuous increasing trend with each survey.
The country with the lowest positive response rate was Japan. Only 13.2% of Japanese respondents said they would fight. Compared to other countries with low rates such as Lithuania (32.8%), Spain (33.5%), Macedonia (36.2%), and Italy (37.4%), Japan's rate was more than 20 percentage points lower. Notably, the percentage of respondents who answered "don't know" was 20 to 30 percentage points higher than in countries with similar rankings.
On the other hand, Germany, which like Japan was a World War II aggressor nation, had 44.8% of respondents saying they would fight for their country if war broke out. The "don't know" response was only 12.2%.
The rate of those willing to fight tended to be higher in countries that had experienced past invasion wars. Vietnam's response rate was the highest at a remarkable 96.4%. This was followed by Jordan (93.8%), Kyrgyzstan (92.7%), China (88.6%), and Norway (87.6%).
Meanwhile, countries worldwide are enhancing their military capabilities following the Ukraine crisis. The United States plans to significantly increase and deploy military forces across Europe, including establishing its first permanent military command in Poland to counter the Russian threat. According to the Financial Times (FT), U.S. President Joe Biden stated at the NATO summit held in Madrid, Spain, on the 29th of last month (local time), "We will strengthen the U.S. military presence in Europe to defend all allied territories." The scale of U.S. troop expansion in Europe this time is the largest since the Cold War.
NATO also announced plans to strengthen its military power. The new strategic concept adopted at the meeting includes defining Russia, which invaded Ukraine, as the most serious and direct threat to security and peace. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "For the first time since the Cold War, we will designate troops in advance by member countries to rotate and protect not only their own countries but also allied countries."
Earlier, Germany announced on the 3rd of last month that it had approved a special defense fund worth 100 billion euros (approximately 134 trillion won). As a result, Germany will be able to achieve its goal of spending 2% of its GDP on defense annually by 2024, as promised to NATO in 2014. Germany has also become the third-largest defense spender in the world, following the United States and China.
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