The End of the All-Volunteer Force: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Recruitment and Love Selective Conscription

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Due to wider social, cultural and economic change, British youth are less understanding and supportive of, and less motivated to serve in, the armed forces. Meanwhile, the British all-volunteer force lacks mass across all its services, in particular the army, at precisely the time when strategic threats are growing. Based on best practices in Europe and beyond, Patrick Bury argues that in the forthcoming defence review, Britain should consider introducing a hybrid force design that blends professional forces with highly selective, national conscription to increase mass in the regular and reserve forces, build youth understanding of the armed forces and wider social resilience, and generate the data and systems around which rapidly scalable conscription can be introduced if needed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)34-42
Number of pages9
JournalRUSI Journal
Volume169
Issue number7
Early online date13 Dec 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Dec 2024

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Political Science and International Relations

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