European countries are preparing their young to face a future war with a level of compulsory and voluntary enlistment programmes not seen since the end of the Second World War.
Fears of a military threat from Russia, coupled with dwindling US interest in defending its transatlantic allies, are driving leaders to beef up their armed forces and reintroduce military service.
France became the latest nation to announce changes last week when President Emmanuel Macron said he would bring in a form of military service to combat “accelerating threats” in global relations, 28 years after the end of conscription.
“France cannot remain idle… at a time when all our European allies advance in response to a threat that weighs on us all,” Macron said.
In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, central and eastern European countries, particularly those that border Russia or were previously under Soviet control or influence, ramped up their armed forces.
Their urgency has only increased in recent months as Russian drone incursions in European airspace, a series of cyber-attacks and suspected tampering with undersea cables have all suggested that Putin’s territorial ambitions do not stop at Kyiv.
In March Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk announced a military training programme for all men, noting that his country’s armed forces numbered just 200,000 personnel compared with Russia’s 1.3m.
But in recent months, western European nations have also sounded the alarm.
The German coalition government agreed a new military plan, which MPs will vote on before the end of the year, requiring all males over 18 to complete a questionnaire on their suitability to serve in the armed forces and to undergo a medical. Women are also being encouraged to volunteer.
‘In this uncertain world where might makes right . . . our nation has no right to be afraid, to panic, to be unprepared or to be divided’
Emmanuel Macron
“We will make voluntary service more attractive,” Jens Spahn, the parliamentary leader of Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats, said on Thursday. “We want to win over as many young people as possible for the service for the fatherland.”
In Denmark, the government extended military service last year from four to 11 months and, since July it has been compulsory for both sexes.
In his speech to military personnel on Thursday, Macron suggested France is ideally seeking 18 and 19-year-olds, who would be paid to sign up for 10 months but would not be deployed abroad. The €2bn programme will be rolled out gradually, with a target of 3,000 volunteers in the first year and 10,000 a year by 2030 increasing France’s military forces to around 210,000.
“In this uncertain world where might makes right . . . our nation has no right to be afraid, to panic, to be unprepared or to be divided,” Macron said in his speech. “Fear, moreover, never avoids danger. The only way to avoid it is to be prepared.”
He added: “We cannot return to the time of conscription. This hybrid army model corresponds to the threats and risks ahead, bringing together national service youth, reservists, and the active army.”
Macron’s announcement came a week after Gen Fabien Mandon, France’s armed forces chief, sparked a storm when he said his country needed to steel itself for possible future losses against Russian aggression and “accept losing its children”.
Mandon warned that Russia appeared to be preparing for a confrontation as soon as 2030. “We have all the knowledge, all the economic and demographic strength to dissuade the Moscow regime from trying its luck further afield,” he said. “But what France lacks is the spirit that accepts that we will have to suffer to protect what we are.
“If our country wavers because it is not ready to accept losing its children — because these things need to be said — and to suffer economically because priorities will go towards defence production, then we are at risk.”
A survey by pollsters Odoxa found about 88% of French people wanted military service brought back. But when it came to the prospect of actually taking up arms, enthusiasm dropped off with only 45% of young men eligible for military service saying they would be prepared to enlist to defend France. The survey found a drop in the number of young men willing to “commit to defending France” fell in the last 18 months.
“The war in Ukraine, which Fabien Mandon has, in a way, invited or projected onto our territory, is very frightening for the French,” said Gaël Sliman, the president of pollster Odoxa.
Photograph by Thomas Padilla /AFP via Getty Images