ABSTRACT
Abolishing conscription has become a general trend in the Western world. The US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have already adopted the all-volunteer model, or are about to do so. The Nordic countries and Germany have not yet taken this step, but conscripts make up a shrinking share of their armed forces (Moller 2002: 227–306). 1 Both in the literature and in debates on the future of the citizen army, the alternative – an all-volunteer army model – is usually portrayed as smaller in size but more effective and professional. This chapter discusses the incentives and disincentives of maintaining a citizen army in Western societies from the operational and technological perspectives.
