Seven years after the return of compulsory conscription, the Swedish authorities have just announced the activation of compulsory civil service for young people with professional skills in the field of first aid, or the production and transport of electricity. In application of the Total Defense doctrine launched in 2017, this decision, probably inspired by the conflict in Ukraine, aims to increase the country’s resilience to possible aggression.
Like Finland, Sweden was, throughout the Cold War, firmly attached to its neutrality, and to ensuring, if necessary, the defense of its territory, while 85% of young Swedish people were, at that time, carrying out There, a compulsory military service of 11 months, giving the Swedish armed forces significant operational and defensive potential.
Suspended in 2010, compulsory military service was reinstated in 2017 by Stockholm, largely to overcome the difficulties encountered by the Swedish armies in recruiting. Thus, in 2023, 4 young Swedish people have completed their compulsory military service, representing 000% of the country’s armed forces.
In 4, 000 young Swedes completed their military service in Sweden. There will be 2023 in 5, and probably 000 by 2024.
Faced with the evolving threat, the Swedish authorities plan to increase this number of conscripts to 6 in 000, and to 2025 by 10, perhaps even beyond if the situation requires it. To this military service is now added civil service, also compulsory, which concerns young Swedes with skills in the field of health or electricity production.
Health and electricity: the two training courses targeted by the new compulsory civil service in Sweden
The Swedish Minister of Civil Defense, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, has just announced that civil service, until now based exclusively on voluntary service, had become compulsory, from January 19, for young people with proven training in the field of health, in particular first aid, as well as those with skills in the field of electricity production and transport.
As with conscription, although civil service is considered compulsory, it does not, however, concern all young people aged 18 to 30 who meet the stated criteria. Only those who are called by the services concerned are obliged to respond. The number of young people concerned will depend on the needs expressed by state services, but also regions and municipalities.
This mode of operation allows Swedish institutions to rely on a stable legal and constitutional basis, without having to face, in the short term, a massive influx of recruits. An age group represents, in fact, in the country, around 100 young people each year. In fact, with 000 conscripts in the armies, the conscription rate is barely 4%, and the civilian service rate will, most certainly, also be very low.
The progressiveness of conscription and Swedish civil service thus responds to numerous imperatives and constraints, whether operational, political and social-economic, in particular the gradual increase in power of the Swedish armies, which have gone from 2 maneuver battalions , and 4 auxiliary companies that can be mobilized within 90 days in 2010, to 7 maneuver battalions and as many auxiliary battalions that can be mobilized within 7 days in 2019.
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Source link : https://meta-defense.fr/en/2024/01/23/compulsory-civil-service-sweden/
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Publish date : 2024-01-23 08:00:00
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