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Revision as of 12:28, 7 December 2002 by Robert Merkel (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Some countries require by law that their citizens serve a term in their armed forces. This process is known as conscription. Most countries only draft men, although some (e.g., Israel) also draft women. Except in wartime, the United States (and many other nations) has a strictly volunteer, or professional, military force, rather than relying on conscription.
Conscription, particularly when the conscriptees are being sent to foriegn wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, has historically been highly politically contentious in democracies. For instance, during World War One, bitter political disputes broke out in Australia and New Zealand over conscription. Similarly, mass protests about conscription to fight in the Vietnam War occurred in several countries in the late 1960's.
In developed nations, the increasing emphasis on technological firepower and better-trained fighting forces, the sheer unlikelihood of a conventional military assault on most developed nations, as well as memories of the contentiousness of the Vietnam War experience, make mass conscription unlikely in the forseeable future.
Russia and China, as well as many smaller nations, retain mainly conscript armies.
See also Military History