Willingness to defend has been stated as a fundamental prerequisite for the Swedish total defense. Despite this, research regarding the subject is limited, and there is a lack of knowledge on what willingness to defend means from the citizens’ point of view. Drawing on theories on territory, national identity and institutionalization processes, I explore the conceptualization of willingness to defend from a socio-spatial perspective through semi-structured interviews. This study engages in what people believe is worth defending, and why, and how this differs depending on the geographical scale. The results show that willingness to defend is a versatile concept with a breadth of connotations, as are the ideas about what is worth defending. The democratic system is recurrently described as a central issue worthy of defense, but this also creates a dilemma in the context of the total defense service. Some consider engaging in defense a citizen-duty, others express that participation must be based in free choice. On the global scale, willingness to defend is connected to, challenged, and affected by international actors and events, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, Sweden's new NATO membership creates another moral dilemma, as considered positive from a security perspective, while at the same time challenging Swedish exceptionalism as a moral superpower.

Syftet med denna studie var att studera hur förskollärare upplever sin roll inom totalförsvaret och hur deras försvarsvilja ser ut. Totalt har tio förskollärare intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och en tematisk analys utfördes på intervjumaterialet. Detta resulterade i två teman och sju subteman som redogör för gynnsamma samt ogynnsamma aspekter för förskollärares syn på sin roll inom totalförsvaret och deras försvarsvilja. Slutsatserna från denna studie var att förskollärare anser att de har en viktig roll inom totalförsvaret och att det finns en hög försvarsvilja. Studien visar dock att kunskapen och informationen om vad deras roll innebär är bristande, inte bara internt utan även stort i samhället och att ledare utgör en viktig roll i att sprida den kunskapen. Slutligen visadestudien på att den mest ogynnsamma aspekten är det som står oss närmast - familjen. Behovet att skydda sin egen familj och veta att den är trygg är det viktigaste och det visar i sig hur viktig förskolan är som aktör inom det civila försvaret för att tillgodose det behovet. / The aim of this study was to study how preschool teachers perceive their role within the total defence and what their willingness to defend one’s own country looks like. A total of tenpreschool teachers have been interviewed through semi-structured interviews and the interview material has been data-processed through a thematic analysis. This resulted in two themes and seven subthemes that included favorable and unfavorable aspects of preschool teachers view of their role in total defence and their willingness to defend. The conclusions of this study were that preschool teachers think that they have an important role in the total defence and that there is a high willingness to defend, but that the knowledge and information about what their role entails is lacking, not only internally but also widely in society and that leaders plays an important role to spread this knowledge. Finally this study shows that the most unfavorable aspect, for the willingness to defend one’s country, is what we have closestto us - the family. The need to protect the own family is the most important thing and that itself shows how important preschool is as an actor in the civil defence.