Factors and Actors Contributing to the Willingness to Defend One’s Own Country: the Case of Latvia, Lithuania and Taiwan (WILLDEF)

Together with Vilnius University (Lithuania) and Academia Sinica (Taiwan), this project explores problems related to the willingness to defend one’s own country in Latvia, Lithuania, and Taiwan. How high or low is the level of peoples’ willingness to defend their country? What are the factors and actors of influence? What are the similarities and differences between the Baltic States and Taiwan? What lessons can these countries learn from each other? What contribution do these cases make to the theoretical debate about the attitude of the population towards the state? 

The project includes sociological studies and interviews as well as public discussions. The study's findings will be published in scientific journals. A book, a scientific anthology, will be presented at the end of the project.

The implementation of the project is coordinated and managed by the RSU Department of Political Science in cooperation with the China Studies Centre. The study involves a group of scientists under the leadership of Dr Māris Andžāns (Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia), Dr Ainė Ramonaitė (Vilnius University, Lithuania), Dr Nick Lin (Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan).    

Participants from RSU

• Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova
• Evija Djatkoviča

Cooperation Partners

• Center for Geopolitical Studies, Riga
• University of St. Thomas, Houston (USA)
• National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

The 29th Biennial AABS Conference, June 13–16, 2024, Yale University in New Haven