IT HAS been a long time since anyone associated Sweden with military might. After 200 years of peace, the country is best known for its official neutrality and international mediation efforts. The conservative Moderate Party, which led coalition governments from 2006 to 2014, cut the military budget so sharply that its own defence minister, Mikael Odenberg, resigned in protest. By 2015 defence spending had fallen to 1.1% of GDP, down from 2.6% in 1988.
Russian aggression and American disengagement have Sweden worried, however, and it has fallen to a left-wing government of Social Democrats and Greens to rebuild the military. On March 2nd Sweden announced that it will reinstitute compulsory military service, which was abolished in 2010 after 109 years. “The security situation in Sweden’s immediate vicinity has worsened,” according to Peter Hultqvist, the defence minister. But a draft will not answer every problem.
The new draft is not universal. Conscription will begin in July, and in the following two years 4,000 draftees a year are expected to serve. Finding those recruits will entail calling up some 13,000 suitable candidates out of a...Continue reading
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