Conscription: Encyclopedia II - Conscription - Countries that do not currently have mandatory military service partial list

Conscription - Countries that do not currently have mandatory military service partial list

Conscription - Argentina

Argentina abolished military conscription in 1994, yet those in service had to finish it.

Conscription - Australia

Conscription - Belgium

Belgium abolished military conscription in 1994.

Conscription - Canada

In Canada conscription has never taken place in peacetime. Conscription became an extremely controversial issue during both World War I and World War II, especially in the province of Quebec.

Conscription - Czech Republic

The Czech Republic abolished compulsory military service on December 31, 2004. See announcement by the Minister of Defence and related BBC News article.

Conscription - France

France was one of the first nations to employ conscription, since during the wars following the French Revolution the army needed men to stop Austrian and British invasions. France abolished peacetime military conscription in 1996, while those born before 1979 had to complete their service (see related BBC News article); since the Algerian War of Independence, conscripts had not been deployed abroad or in war zones, except those volunteering for such deployments.

Conscription - Hungary

Hungary abolished mandatory military service by November 2004, after the parliament had modified the constitution, ending a long-standing political dispute. To restore drafting, a two-thirds vote in parliament is needed, which is unlikely in the short term. The country is currently developing a professional army, with strong emphasis on "contract soldiers" who voluntarily serve 4+4 years for a wage.

Conscription - India

India has never had mandatory military service, either under British rule or since independence in 1947.

Conscription - Iraq

Saddam Hussein's large Iraqi army was largely composed of conscripts, except for the elite Republican Guard. About 100,000 conscripts died during the First Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm. In the intervening years, Iraq's military suffered from decay and poor leadership, but there was still compulsory service. One program of note was "Ashbal Saddam" known as "Saddam's Cubs" where children were trained to defend Iraq through "toughening" excercises such as firearms training and dismembering live chickens with their teeth. Following the Second Gulf War where the original military was disbanded, the Iraqi Army was recreated as a volunteer force with training overseen at first by the CPA and later by the American presence.

Conscription - Ireland

Ireland has always had a fully volunteer military. See the Irish Defence Forces. The threat of conscription being extended to Ireland in the First World War contributed to the creation of the Irish Free State in the 1920s. (Also see: United Kingdom below).

Conscription - Italy

Until January 1, 2005, Italy had mandatory military service for men between the ages of 18 and 45. Men were usually required to serve for ten months. Anyone objecting to military service for religious or ethical reasons could claim to be a conscientious objector, in which case community service was usually authorised as an alternative to the regular ten months of military service.

The Italian Parliament, by a large majority, voted to abolish mandatory military service from 1 January 2005, and the Italian armed forces will be now be entirely composed of professional volunteer troops, both male and female. [3].

Conscription - Japan

Japan's Self Defence Forces have been a volunteer force since their establishment in the 1950s, following the end of the Allied occupation. As the Japanese constitution expressly prohibits Japan from maintaining any offensive military force, conscription will most likely never be an issue in the near future.

Conscription - Luxembourg

Luxembourg has a volunteer military. See the National Museum of Military History.

Conscription - Netherlands

The Netherlands established conscription for a territorial militia in 1814, simultaneously establishing a standing army which was to be manned by volunteers only. However, lack of sufficient volunteers caused the two components to be merged in 1819 into a "cadre-militia" army, in which the bulk of troops were conscripts, led by professional officers and NCOs. This system remained in use until the end of the Cold War. Between 1991 and 1996, the Dutch armed forces phased out their conscript personnel and converted to an all-volunteer force. The last conscript troops were inducted in 1995 and demobilized in 1996. Formally, the Netherlands has not abolished conscription; that is to say, the laws and systems which provide for the conscription of armed forces personnel remain in place, and Dutch citizens who completed their military service prior to 1996 can still, theoretically, be mobilized in the event of a national emergency.

Conscription - New Zealand

Conscription of men into the armed forces of New Zealand came into effect in 1940, and was abolished in 1972.

Conscription - Portugal

Portugal abolished compulsory military service on November 19, 2004. See an announcement by the Minister of Defence.

Conscription - Slovakia

Slovakia abolished compulsory military service on January 1, 2006.

Conscription - Slovenia

Slovenia's Prime Minister Anton Rop abolished mandatory military service on September 9, 2003. See the official press release.

Conscription - Spain

Spain abolished compulsory military service in 2001. See an announcement by the Minister of Defence. Military and alternative service was 9 months long and in recent years the majority of conscripts chose to perform alternative, rather than military, service.

Conscription - United Kingdom

The United Kingdom introduced conscription during both world wars. For the first two years of World War I the British relied on volunteers. But by 1916 the need for yet more soldiers to replace losses at the front, forced the British Government to introduce conscription under the Military Service Act.

Ireland was initially exempt from conscription in the First World War, but it was extended to Ireland on April 9, 1918. This led a Conscription Crisis in Ireland and was a decisive factor in pushing the country into seeking its independence. The poet W.B. Yeats wrote to Lord Haldane in protest: "...it seems to me a strangely wanton thing that England, for the sake of 50,000 Irish soldiers, is prepared to hollow another trench between the countries and fill it with blood." Also in protest, Lady Gregory declared "women and children will stand in front of their men and receive the bullets, rather than let them be taken to the front." Northern Ireland was exempt from conscription in the Second World War, and was also excluded from the post-war National Service.

Conscription was reintroduced in 1939 at the start of World War II. Not only was conscription used for the three branches of the armed forces, it was also introduced to aid in coal mining with the Bevin Boys, and later in the war with the introduction of conscription of women into the Women's Land Army to help with agricultural production. After World War II, the Government introduced National Service, which was abolished in 1960.

Conscription - United States

The United States has employed conscription intermittently. For example, in 1863 the imposition of a draft during the Civil War touched off the New York Draft Riots. Conscription was next used after the United States entered World War I in 1917. The first peacetime conscription came with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Active conscription ("the draft") ended in 1973. Currently, male U.S. citizens and many male aliens living in the U.S., if aged 18 through 25, are required to register with the Selective Service System, whose mission is "to provide manpower to the armed forces in an emergency; and to run an Alternative Service Program for men classified as conscientious objectors during a draft."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Countries that do not currently have mandatory military service partial list", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki