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Latvia’s Return to Conscription: Learning by Doing?

Citizenship
Gender
National Identity
Security
War
Policy Change
Youth
Toms Rostoks
University of Latvia
Toms Rostoks
University of Latvia

Abstract

Latvia transitioned back to conscription after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. In early 1990s, conscription was one of the legacies from the Soviet Union that was renounced as soon as Latvia joined NATO in 2004. Conscription was unpopular, and territorial defence seemed a thing of the past. Later, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 resulted in higher defence expenditure, but policymakers decided against reintroducing conscription. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2022 finally prompted policymakers to abandon the all-volunteer force model that was becoming increasingly untenable. Despite a significant increase of applications for the National Guard – a militia-type organization – in 2014 and 2022, professional military units were undermanned, and there was little indication that this would change. The practice of re-introducing conscription, as Toms Rostoks argues, has been somewhat puzzling though because Latvia has chosen to increase the annual intake of conscripts gradually, starting with low hundreds in 2023. Also, policymakers decided against introducing gender neutral conscription, despite the earlier decisions by Norway and Sweden. Toms Rostoks examines the reintroduction of conscription in Latvia, the reasons why policymakers chose against expanding the pool of conscripts to include women, as well as the reasons why policymakers may yet decide to introduce gender neutral conscription at a later stage.