英文摘要 |
What explains Taiwanese citizens' determination of self-defense? To date, few studies touch upon this issue. We argue that one's military service experience is an important factor for studying citizens' willingness to fight and hypothesize that positive experience could be conducive to higher willingness for self-defense as the citizens feel they have the capabilities and preparations for a conflict. We operationalize military service into three dimensions: military branch, evaluation of usefulness of military trainings, and interactions with units' senior officers. Using an original online survey conducted by National Chengchi University in July 2018, we find: (1) military branch matters-serving in the Air Force leads to higher determination, and (2) positive evaluations of the military training lead to higher determination. Additionally, we also find that the older generations believe that military trainings are effective for real conflicts. Based on the empirical findings, we propose several policy suggestions. |