ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book. The book explores the background, state of affairs and possible future of conscription in six European countries, namely: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. Conscription has been purported as being out of style, and this goes particularly for the industrial Western countries. Professionalism is purported as the norm whilst staying with conscription is argued to stand for a deviation. Conscription would – if depicted along more internationally oriented lines – break new ground by turning increasingly post-modern. To quote a prominent voice: The ideal form of a national military, associated with universal male conscription, masculine virtues, and national patriotism, has been transformed into a 'high-tech' professional armed force, providing military power for temporary international coalitions. The system of conscription would be there as one form of recruitment among others, but no longer embedded in the same political discourse that underpinned it during the modern era.
