Military Conscription in the 21st Century: Obsolescence or Relevance?

Abstract

Post Russian invasion of Ukraine, questions about conscription have come into focus, prompting questions about military readiness and the value of such a policy. In analyzing the policy, international relations theories can act as a useful framework, and help elucidate conflict dynamics. In particular, Realism and Liberalism have contrasting depictions of the world, with the former characterizing it as an anarchic system in which states compete for power and security and the latter as a system in which states allay tensions through cooperation. This research draws upon these theories as it uses hypothesis testing—t-tests, ANOVA, and chi-squared statistics—to investigate the different attributes of countries as they relate to conscription policies. A wide range of variables were chosen including military expenditure, imports and exports, the Human Development Index, and the EIU Democracy Index in order to test statistically significant differences through the aforementioned tools. Overall, this research finds that both realist and liberal theories have explanatory power and provide insight into how desire for hard and soft power may impact decisions to enact and maintain conscription policies. Data and graphs were interpreted alongside such concepts in order to reach this conclusion.