Voluntary, for Now, National Service is Returning to Europe

Military Conscription Is Making a Huge Comeback in Europe… Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its Special Military Operation in Ukraine in 2022, Europe has seen a resurgence in both compulsory and voluntary military service. In the 1990s and 2000s, most European countries phased out mandatory conscription, opting for professional armies only. But recent geopolitical developments in Eastern Europe, marked by the return of high-intensity warfare on the EU’s doorstep and Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics against the bloc, have prompted a reassessment.   Lithuania became the first EU country to reintroduce compulsory conscription in 2015, followed by Sweden…