Major NATO states may be considering adopting a Swedish-style conscription system, as the West ramps up its efforts to arm itself in the face of a destabilised geopolitical landscape.
Germany’s Defence Minister recently visited Tegeluddsvägen – a conscription testing centre on the edge of Stockholm. Boris Pistorius said: “We need young and well-motivated men and women to defend our countries if they are needed.
“I heard a lot about the Swedish approach and I appreciate it — your approach includes a strong reserve force and we have seen in Ukraine that this is important.”
The Swedish approach is an attempt by the Nordic country to re-arm, following years of military neglect after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
When Vladimir Putin’s troops annexed Crimea in 2014, Sweden’s government implemented the model they have today.
Under the system, 110,000 teenagers are screened a year, and around a quarter of those will be called for physical and mental exams.
From that select group, a third are drafted to serve between nine and 15 months in the military.
It’s a system that is being looked at in the Netherlands, as well as by top German officials.
Sir Alex Younger, a former head of MI6, is also a major British advocate of the system.
In April, he told the BBC: “Our military-industrial complex is shot. We need to do something about that. We need to build up our capabilities.
“I think we need a completely different approach to, for instance, our reserve forces which allows us to call on those people in the event of an emergency.
“Then ultimately in extremis, I think we’d be looking at something like the model I understand exists in places like Sweden”.
