NATO's Recruitment Woes
The NATO 2024 Washington Summit gets under way and plans are being laid to pressure countries to boost their military budgets in support of U.S./NATO goals, to increase funds and weapons for Ukraine to "win" the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia and to widen NATO's warmongering on behalf of U.S. imperialism around the world. One challenge facing many NATO member countries at this time is recruiting young people for the military.
In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) noted that "during fiscal year 2023, the military services collectively missed recruiting goals by about 41,000 recruits." One of the main reasons for this shortfall according to the DOD is "Generation Z, the generation born from 1997 to 2012, generally has a low trust in institutions." The same report noted that 20 years ago at least 75 per cent of American youth considered a career in the military. Today it is less than 50 per cent. To boost military recruitment, amongst other things, the DOD is urging members of Congress to step up their efforts to hype the military among their young constituents. The DOD proposes using "gaming" to engage young children through video games that promote war and aggression, popularizing the military in sports and community events and so on.
In Canada, a founding member and champion of NATO, the military's efforts to boost numbers are also in crisis. Earlier this year, Minister of Defence Bill Blair said that the Canadian armed forces has a shortage of at least 16,500 members and that the military's failure to boost recruitment is leading to a "death spiral." To address this crisis, in 2022, the Canadian military lifted its ban on permanent residents (PR) applying to join the armed forces. The CBC reports that within a year the Canadian military received more than 21,000 applications. However, to date, just over 100 people have been accepted because of the enhanced security screening imposed on this group of applicants. Of the 21,000 initial PR applicants, 15,000 have chosen to abandon their applications because of the long wait times and onerous security demands.
In a 2022 poll
commissioned by the Canadian Department of National Defence as part of
preparations for the Royal Canadian Air Force's 100th anniversary
celebrations in 2024, 58 per cent of those polled said they were "not
likely at all to join" the air force and another 21 per cent indicated
they were "not very likely to join." For the army, the numbers were 57
and 22 per cent respectively and for the navy the numbers were even
higher, 61 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
A decade-long campaign by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to
have women make up 25 per cent of the military by 2026 has also been a
bust. Statistics on the representation of women in the CAF as of May
2023 show they make up 16.06 per cent of total regular forces members;
16.99 per cent of Primary Reserve Officers, 17.48 per cent of Primary
Reserve NCMs and 17.39 per cent of Total Primary Reserve members. They
make up 16.48 per cent of Total Regular Force and Primary Reserve
members.
Other NATO countries are facing similar problems. In
Britain, it is reported that there is an annual hiring shortfall of
1,100 troops even though the government has contracted out recruitment
to Capita, a private company. Between 2022 and 2023, there was a seven
per cent drop in applicants to the German military.
Not only are Britain and Germany and other countries such as France facing recruitment challenges, another problem is military personnel quitting. In 2023, more than 1,500 soldiers left the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, which has about 183,000 active personnel. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu noted in March, "At NATO meetings, we can talk about equipment, but now we also talk about the level of retention." France plans to address this problem by helping military personnel find housing, subsidizing health care and child care, and enhancing wages and pensions.
Some NATO countries such as Croatia are thinking of bringing back conscription. Denmark, a founding member of NATO, has introduced conscription for women for the first time and increased the period of military service from four months to a year as of this March. Although Germany scrapped conscription in 2011, there is discussion about bringing back some form of military service.
These examples show that the inability to attract and retain young people to the military is compounding the crisis that NATO is facing while continuing to present itself "as the greatest military alliance in history."
(With files from CBC, Ottawa Citizen, Politico. U.S. Department of Defense)
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 40 - July 8, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54407.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca