Models of selective military service in modern conditions

Abstract

New security challenges in the second decade of the twenty-first century and their materialization through various forms of hybrid warfare have had an impact on the emergence of ideas of strengthening state capacities for defence and security. One of these ideas is related to the manning of the armed forces. The paper presents models of selective military service that are successfully implemented in several European countries, which have similar demographic potential as Serbia. The main characteristic of these models of selective recruitment is the selection of only those persons who are interested in completing their military service voluntarily. Thus, the high motivation of future soldiers has been provided, and the consequences that would result from forcing those who do not want to do their military service have been forestalled. Models of manning in several neutral European countries and Israel have also been presented in order to gain a comparative insight. Foreign experiences have been summarised in the form of guidelines for a possible concept of a model of selective military service, which would meet the existing limitations and improve opportunities for a greater number of motivated persons, given the problematic possibility of mechanical reintroduction of the old model of conscription. The objective of this paper is to consider the possibilities of implementing foreign experiences in the process of creating an optimal solution, while respecting limiting factors in order to provide a highly motivated human factor for manning the armed forces.