Support for conscription waning

Polls suggest over 40% of Finns want changes in current system

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Recent polls show that support among the Finnish people for the current system of conscription has decreased.
      Surveys published this year and last year by the Advisory Board for Defence Information indicate that support for the current system of obligatory military service for men has fallen to between 51 and 59 per cent of the population.
      Dr. Mikko Salasuo of the Finnish Youth Research Network says that the pressure for change will come within ten years. “I am certain that the system is changing. The present system seems to be enjoying less and less popularity.”
     
The waning of military threats after the Cold War is seen as one reason for the changing attitudes.
      According to Salasuo, the content of military service should be altered so that it would make it easier to respond to threats other than armed attack. Such threats would include natural disasters and nuclear accidents.
      “Conscripts are not stupid. Of course they will ask what their training is meant for.”
     
Salasuo says that military service is seen by many young people to be absurd. He says that the wartime experiences of the previous generations are no longer a sufficient motivation for a major alteration in a young man’s life for six months or more.
      “The Defence Forces do not want to admit openly that there would be something wrong in the content of the service. Simply criticising it is seen to be suspect.”
     
Most European countries have given up on universal conscription. Finland is part of the same small group as Turkey and Greece that still adhere to mandatory military service.
      The attitudes of young people toward conscription were investigated in the 2010 youth barometer study. The study found that 40 per cent of young people feel that changes in the world have made general conscription unnecessary.
      As many as 45 per cent of young people would support a kind of civic service that would apply to both men and women, and 42 per cent felt that having conscription apply to men only was unfair.
     
Finland has shifted in the direction of selective conscription, almost by stealth; with each successive year a smaller proportion of men undergoing military training.
      While admitting that the percentage of men doing military service is declining, the Defence Forces emphasise 77 per cent of men continue to serve.
     
However, this figure is outdated, as it applies to an age group in which most did their service already ten years ago. The Defence Staff announces the percentages only when the entire age group has passed the age of 30.
      There is a common belief that only between 60 and 70 per cent of the age group that is called up for service this year will complete the standard armed service.
     
Special Researcher Joonas Sipilä of the National Defence College points out that 70 per cent of an entire age group is a fairly large number of people.
      “For now it seems that the current system has the support of the population at large, but of course it is possible that pressures for change can emerge rather quickly.”
      “I think that this debate is still ahead of us.”
     
Can Finland be the only country in Western Europe with conscription?
      “It can, because it already is”, Sipilä says.
     
The debate on conscription tends to focus on the extremes - either the present system or a professional army.
      Less attention has been paid to various intermediary solutions that are common in Europe. Two of Finland’s three branches of defence - the Air Force and the Navy - comprise professional soldiers in large part.
     
A common rationale for mandatory military service is that it is inexpensive. However, Sipilä points out that there is more to it than the actual expenditure.
      “It could be said with justification that a coerced system like conscription is costly for the national economy, because half of each age group is taken out of work or studies.”
      Calculating the costs of conscription is more difficult to analyse than those of a professional military, which can be seen directly in the state budget.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Poll: most Finns accept male-only conscription (12.5.2009)
  Minister of Defence Häkämies: Swedish motion to give up compulsory military service is not for Finland (16.5.2007)Minister of Defence Häkämies: Swedish motion to give up compulsory military service is not for Finland (16.5.2007)
  Experts say Finland could get more professional military (12.1.2005)

Links:
  Finnish Defence Forces - Conscription

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