The End of the All-Volunteer Force

Due to wider social, cultural and economic change, British youth are less understanding and supportive of, and less motivated to serve in, the armed forces. Meanwhile, the British all-volunteer force lacks mass across all its services, in particular the army, at precisely the time when strategic threats are growing. Based on best practices in Europe and beyond, Patrick Bury argues that in the forthcoming defence review, Britain should consider introducing a hybrid force design that blends professional forces with highly selective, national conscription to increase mass in the regular and reserve forces, build youth understanding of the armed forces and wider social resilience, and generate the data and systems around which rapidly scalable conscription can be introduced if needed.