The study deals with the role of volunteering and reserve forces in the security and defence systems of selected European states in the context of a changing security environment. It focuses on the institutional and personnel anchoring of voluntary military service, active reserves and other forms of involvement of the wider public in the defence of the state, both in the field of armed forces and in the broader framework of internal security and crisis management. It seems increasingly clear that volunteer and reserve models are becoming a key tool for strengthening defence capacities, increasing the resilience of the state and deepening civil-military cooperation, especially in conditions of limited personnel resources of professional armies. The text also points out the differences between the individual states under review (Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) in terms of the degree of integration of volunteers, the scope of their tasks, the intensity of training and their relationship to compulsory military service. Attention is also paid to a certain extent to informal or insufficiently regulated security activities, including the potential for their politicisation or misuse by extremist actors. The study aims to contribute to the expert debate on the possibilities of effectively involving volunteer potential in complex national defence systems. The paper advances the argument that volunteering is no longer a peripheral addition to defence systems, but constitutes a structural pillar of modern defence architectures, particularly in states relying on professional armed forces and whole-of-society approaches.