Volunteer Military Research Articles

Recruiting effective soldiers: Comparing Danish conscripts and volunteers deployed to peace-keeping and peace-enforcing missions

Several countries have changed between conscription and volunteer militaries, yet very little is known about the outcomes of conscripts compared with volunteers. Denmark is one of the few countries that recruits conscripts and volunteers for military service and assigns conscripts through a draft lottery—a uniquely informative combination. While deployment to the missions we study was voluntary, we use the initial assignment mechanism to estimate the relationships between recruitment methods and a variety of military and post-military deployment outcomes. We find that conscription improves the deployed intelligence pool compared to a volunteer force. However, the intelligence of deployed conscripts varies more over the business cycle than that of volunteers. Denmark’s mixed recruitment method is able to recruit effective soldiers as we find no other significant associations between recruitment method and outcomes while deployed.

An Analysis of the Operation and Maintenance Cost of the Military Service System Based on the Recruitment Mix Ratio of Volunteer Military System

An Analysis of the Operation and Maintenance Cost of the Military Service System Based on the Recruitment Mix Ratio of Volunteer Military System

Who Supports Volunteer Military System? Who Supports Conscription System?: Ideology, Generation? Partisanship, Interests!

이 연구는 병역제도에 대한 유권자 선호와 대립 구조를 분석한다. 병역제도는 안보적 측면을 넘어 정치, 경제, 사회적으로도 매우 중요한 정책이다. 그럼에도 불구하고 병역제도 선호에 대한 체계적인 분석은 미진한 편이다. 우리는 모병제와 징병제로 대표되는 병역제 선호가 당파성, 이념, 세대, 그리고 이익 인식에 따라 달리 나타날 것이라고 주장한다. 이 주장을 경험적으로 검증하기 위해 본 연구는 설문조사 결과를 분석하여 각 요인이 모병제와 징병제 정책 선호에 미치는 영향력을 추정한다. 이 논문의 회귀분석 결과에 따르면, 당파성과 군 생활에 대한 이익 인식이 병역제 선호에 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 더 나아가 세대가 병역제 선호에 대한 개인적 이익 효과를 조건 짓는 유의미한 변수이며, 40세 미만의 MZ 세대에서 그 효과가 더 크게 나타났다. 하지만 이 연구의 예상과 달리 이념과 세대는 병역제 정책선호를 독립적으로 설명하지 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 모병제를 포함한 대안적 병역제도 논의과정에서 정치권이 초당적 접근을 통해 사회적 논의를 주도해야 하며, 이러한 논의과정이 군대의 근무 환경과 처우를 개선하기 위한 노력과 병행되어야 함을 보여준다.

Pressed to Prolong: Conscription, the Costs of Military Labor, and Civil War Duration

AbstractExisting research has identified numerous explanations for why some civil wars last longer than others. Yet, the type of labor that state militaries recruit has remained unexplored in this context. We consider how a state's military personnel system affects its ex post decision to keep fighting. We argue that conscription renders access to military labor relatively easy and, thus, less expensive. As military wages fall, war becomes less costly, the production of military power becomes more labor intensive, and the hazard of conflict termination declines. In a volunteer force, in contrast, military labor is relatively scarce and, therefore, more expensive. Accordingly, war becomes more costly, the production of military power becomes more capital intensive, and the hazard of conflict termination rises. These effects are reinforced as a conflict persists, leading to an increased divergence in duration across conscripted and volunteer militaries. We test these contentions using a global sample of civil wars, finding robust support for each expectation. We also validate the underlying mechanisms linking conscription to protracted conflict in two illustrative cases. Our results highlight the importance of labor-side determinants of war duration and contribute to a growing literature that explores how the composition of military forces affects conflict dynamics.

Incidence of Burnout syndrome in Brazilian army military in the amazon region

This study aimed to investigate the Burnout levels and possible predisposing factors among Brazilian Army military who were serving in the Brazilian Amazon. Method: the sample consisted of 122 volunteer military (officers and sergeants) with a mean age of 36.80 ± 6.69 years, 53 were employed in the operational missions (border security, patrol, external and internal defense exercises) and 69 personnel who were employed in the administrative missions (internal logistics). Officers (29) and sergeants (93) were selected who served in Porto Velho, northwestern Brazil. They answered to a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Malash Burnout Inventory, validated for Brazil. Results: scores showed that the levels of burnout in Army military who serve in the region are high. The main sociodemographic, labor, physical and social conditions that were associated with significantly higher levels of Burnout in this study were: reduced length of service, sedentary lifestyle, extra work, lower hierarchical rank and living away from relatives. Conclusion: the interaction between the two instruments found that the military working in the operational area, warrant officers, sergeants, between 6 and 10 years in service, single, who do little physical activity and whose relatives live far away were the ones who had the highest Burnout levels.

입대전 자원봉사활동 만족도와 사회적지지 군생활 적응의 관계 -자아존중감의 매개효과-

입대전 자원봉사활동 만족도와 사회적지지 군생활 적응의 관계 -자아존중감의 매개효과-

What do we do now? Examining civilian masculinity/ies in contemporary liberal civil-military relations

AbstractIn contemporary Western, liberal democratic societies, the soldier is frequently regarded as ‘the best of us’, taking on the unlimited liability for the protection and betterment of the whole. In the context of volunteer militaries and distant conflicts, the construction of men (and the universalised masculine citizen) as ‘always-already’ soldiers (or potential soldiers) poses a substantial obstacle to the identification or performance of ‘good’ civilian masculinity – particularly during wartime. The theorisation and articulation of a positive, substantive civilian masculinity, or masculinities, rather than one defined simply by an absence of military service and implication in the collective use of violence, is a central challenge of contemporary politics. As a means of illuminating the complex dynamics of this challenge, this article examines charitable practices of civilian support for the military, and corresponding constructions of masculinity, in the UK during the ‘war on terror’. In doing so, the article demonstrates the ways in which gendered ‘civilian anxiety’, through its connection to citizenship, comes to condition the political possibilities and subjectivities of all those who seek belonging in the liberal political community. The article concludes by arguing for the essentiality of a research programme oriented around ‘civilianness’, and civilian masculinity/ies.

Seeking Possibility of ROK Armed Forces Transition to Volunteer Military System -Focused on Dynamic SWOT Analysis of Foreign Military Service System Example-

Seeking Possibility of ROK Armed Forces Transition to Volunteer Military System -Focused on Dynamic SWOT Analysis of Foreign Military Service System Example-

A Few Good Men and Women: Gender, Race, and Status in the Wartime Volunteer Military

Much is known about the men who entered the US military during draft era wars and the peacetime volunteer era. Relatively less is known about those who turned 18 during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Journalists, advocates, and politicians have expressed concern that wartime volunteer service has been inequitable. Yet there is apparently only one peer-reviewed article that explores the socioeconomic characteristics of the men who came of age after the start of the recent wars, and none that evaluate how race and status of female recruits varied. To assess these questions, the following article develops a theoretical model building on the status attainment and life course traditions. It uses data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, which contains information about a national sample of people who became eligible to join the armed forces during the height of the wartime volunteer era. It does not find evidence that low-status and minority men were disproportionately likely to enlist. Indeed, those with low-status were less likely to do so, partly because they were excluded by military standards. Men were particularly unlikely to join the armed forces, however, if they grew up in high-status rather than families in the middle of the status distribution. By contrast, women were most likely to join the armed forces if they came from the lower-middle than from anywhere else in the status distribution. Minority men were no more likely than white men to enlist, but black women were disproportionately likely to join the military.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy American Service Academies Program Symposium: Advancing Leadership through Understanding the Holocaust

Holocaust and genocide education are important components of leadership education for civilians and service members alike. The paper describes the US Coast Guard Academy’s Holocaust symposium as an example of leadership education for service members that is equally applicable to other contexts of secondary and tertiary education (particularly in nations relying on volunteer militaries). The important lessons the symposium conveys include: 1) genocide is a threat to all humanity, and the loss of one group is a loss to all; 2) a bystander makes an active choice that may result in escalating harm to others; 3) prejudice has had a long history but it is still alive today; and 4) blind obedience to authority and leaders is dangerous. These experiences should lead students to not only recognize the social, political, and military antecedents to atrocity-producing situations, but help develop in them the moral judgment and courage to identify and prevent these conditions at home and abroad.

Markets and Manpower

Economic studies of military manpower systems emphasize the advantages of voluntarism under all but the most total threats, but this explains neither the persistence of institutionalized conscription in many states nor the timing of shifts from such conscription systems to volunteer militaries. Traditional explanations focus on external threat levels, but this has also proven unsatisfying. We theorize that threat variables establish the state’s baseline need for manpower, but structural economic variables determine whether the necessary manpower can be more efficiently obtained by conscription or voluntarism. Using a new data set of 99 countries over 40 years, we find that states with British origins are less likely and those experiencing greater external threat are more likely to employ conscripts. Most importantly, states with more highly regulated labor markets are more likely to employ conscripts, which suggests that, controlling for a number of relevant factors, labor markets matter in military manpower decisions.

The culture of sacrifice in conscript and volunteer militaries: The U.S. Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Iraq, 1861–2014

This article traces the history of one genre of commemoration, the U.S. Medal of Honor, from its inception in 1861, early in the Civil War, to the present. We begin by locating the Medal of Honor historically in relation to other genres that memorialize wartime military service and in so doing construct narratives that address wartime trauma. The central sections of this article identify the main elements of the Medal of Honor as a genre that works to define ideals of military honor and bravery. We present our methodology for analyzing the citations. We code the criteria for awarding the Medal and find a decisive change during the Vietnam War when Medals of Honor increasingly were awarded for defensive heroism, actions that saved the lives of fellow soldiers or retrieved the bodies of fallen comrades, rather than for offensive heroism, efforts to kill enemy soldiers, and thereby further battlefield success. We explain how that change allowed the military to construct a progressive narrative from defeat in Vietnam that also spoke to broader cultural changes in the 1960s. We relate that shift to the transition to an all-volunteer military. We conclude by analyzing on how post-Vietnam narratives of honor affect the ways in which the United States has sought to elicit support from soldiers and civilians for subsequent wars.

Parameters – Full Issue – Winter 2015

Special Commentary: Rethinking America’s Grand Strategy by Hal Brands The Efficacy of Landpower by Michael Allen Hunzeker, Alexander Lanoszka, Joseph Roger Clark Professionalism and the Volunteer Military by Don M. Snider, Louis G. Yuengert Putin’s Way of War by Andrew Monaghan On Strategic Leadership by David H. Petraeus

A Contractual Analysis of the Military Enlistment

Since July 1, 1973, this nation has had what is termed an "all volunteer military." As a result, the primary means available for an individual to enter military service has become the enlistment contract. This article will explore whether or not this type of agreement is, in fact, a contract. We shall analyze what documents or acts are necessary to comprise this agreement between a volunteer and the United States; whether a military enlistment agreement satisfies the traditional contractual elements, such as mutual assent, consideration, and capacity to contract; what is the effect of conditions stated in the contract; and, finally, breach and remedies for breach.

Volunteer Militaries, The Draft, and Support for War

This study models how a nation's military manpower system affects the decision to go to war. Manpower systems differ primarily in how they distribute costs: the volunteer system shares the war's manpower costs broadly, whereas the draft forces a subset of the population to bear a disproportionate share of the load. This difference affects an office‐ and policy‐motivated politician's decision to go to war. The draft induces prowar policy‐makers to pursue more wars than the volunteer military does, whereas the volunteer system induces antiwar policy‐makers to pursue more wars than the draft does. The manpower systems cannot be generically ranked by efficiency because each makes errors the other avoids, but the volunteer system induces selection of more efficient wars for a large class of plausible preference distributions.

Deferments and the Relative Cost of Conscription

Abstract A model of military conscription with costly deferments is developed. Deferments may enable the induction of only those with the lowest reservation wages, avoiding the usual misallocation of resources with conscription versus a volunteer military. With costly deferments, the tradeoff between conscription and a volunteer military involves the cost of deferments with the former and the higher deadweight cost of taxation with the latter. Among the results are: 1) conscription is socially preferable to a volunteer military only if a large percentage of eligible individuals is demanded by the military; 2) if conscription is used when it is socially cheaper than a volunteer military, welfare is improved if deferments have lower social benefits; and 3) ignoring other costs of conscription (e.g., higher turnover and reduced investment in human capital), the U.S. in World War II may have been near the point at which conscription and a volunteer military were of equal social cost.

Unequal Risk: Combat Occupations in the Volunteer Military

This study evaluates the characteristics of the men who served in the volunteer military in combat occupations. It examines whether these characteristics stem from supply-side or demand-side decisions, or reflect class bias. The findings suggest that, on the supply side, men who had greater academic abilities were more likely to go to college, thereby avoiding military service and the possibility of serving in a combat occupation. On the demand side, the armed forces were more likely to exclude men with lower academic abilities but were more likely to assign such men in the military to combat occupations. Net of the impacts of these supply-side and demand-side decisions, men who served in combat occupations still differed from those who did not in terms of their family background. The impact of family background was stronger on entering the military than on being assigned to combat occupations once in the military.

Table of Contents

This study evaluates the characteristics of the men who served in the volunteer military in combat occupations. It examines whether these characteristics stem from supply-side or demand-side decisions, or reflect class bias. The findings suggest that, on the supply side, men who had greater academic abilities were more likely to go to college, thereby avoiding military service and the possibility of serving in a combat occupation. On the demand side, the armed forces were more likely to exclude men with lower academic abilities but were more likely to assign such men in the military to combat occupations. Net of the impacts of these supply-side and demand-side decisions, men who served in combat occupations still differed from those who did not in terms of their family background. The impact of family background was stronger on entering the military than on being assigned to combat occupations once in the military.

Volunteer Militaries, the Draft, and Support for War

This paper models how a nation's military manpower procurement system affects popular support for war and political choices regarding war. When citizens have idiosyncratic benefits from war and costs from serving, I characterize when a volunteer military maximizes support, and when a mixture of volunteer and conscripted forces does. Pure conscription never maximizes support. The personnel systems cannot be ranked ex-ante by efficiency, because each makes mistakes the other avoids. Ceteris paribus, political systems requiring only weak support to initiate wars have more war under pure conscription, while those requiring strong support have more war under a volunteer system.

SHOULD MILITARY UNIFORMS CARRY THE UNION LABEL?

It is widely believed that the unionization of military labor leads to reduced discipline and lower combat capability. Case studies of the performance of existing military unions, however, generally suggest that unionization has a benign impact on the performance of the armed forces. In this paper, we offer a theoretical economic analysis of the likely impact of military unionization on volunteer militaries. Our analysis suggests that military unionization will unambiguously lead to larger, but less disciplined, armed forces, leaving the overall impact of unionization on defense capability ambiguous. Military unionization, however, will clearly enhance social welfare.