France has not had a mandatory military service for nearly three decades. Today, as Russia multiplies its threats on the edge of Europe, the country is considering how to boost its military capacity – and that includes growing the armed forces. As a new, voluntary military service aims to recruit young people in the hope they will go on to serve professionally, RFI looks at how this version compares to the conscription of the past.
Faced with an increasingly threatening Russia, the continuing risk of terrorism and a United States administration that wants to pull back military support from Europe, France is looking to expand its military capacity, and recruiting more soldiers has become a necessity.
“Scale matters, and scale means equipment and munitions, but it also means people,” said Olivier Kempf, an army colonel and military analyst.
France has one of the best-equipped armies in the EU and the second-largest number of troops, after Poland, with 200,000 active duty personnel and around 45,000 reservists.
But Kempf said the three branches of the military have struggled to meet their full recruitment targets in recent years.
Legacy of conscription
To reach and top those targets, French President Emmanuel Macron last month announced a new, opt-in military service. Due to launch by mid-2026, it aims to recruit 3,000 18- and 19-year-olds in 2026, with the goal getting 50,000 participants by 2035.
Volunteers would serve in the army for 10 months in France and its overseas territories, but not in overseas combat zones. At the end of their service, they would have the option of joining the reserves, which France hopes to double to about 80,000 by 2030.
The programme would be paid – €800 to €1,000 a month, plus room and board – and could offer university credit.
It is the latest iteration of various military and civic programmes put in place since the end of France’s mandatory 10 months of national service in 1997.
Under a scheme begun in 1998, all French citizens aged 16 to 25 must complete a “day of defence and citizenship”, where they learn about the military and civic duties.
“The day is useful, both for the armies and for the young people, as it allows for a bit of discovery – but honestly, in one day you do not get trained. It’s just a meeting, like speed dating, if you will,” Kempf told RFI.
Military service: what does conscription look like across Europe?
Serving society or defence?
Even before France’s military needs became more urgent, there were calls to reinstate mandatory service in order to instill a sense of duty or discipline in young people.
“There is a bit of nostalgia from a generation that has not done its military service, and it is amazing – or scary, depending how you see it – to have politicians see military service as a kind of panacea that will solve all of society’s problems,” said Guillaume Lasconjarias, an associate professor of history at the Sorbonne University in Paris and head of research at France’s Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defence.
While national service may have helped create a common goal and structure for generations of young people, these were “byproducts” of a system intended to create soldiers, says Lascojarias, who has served as a reserve officer for over two decades after being part of the last generation to go through France’s mandatory military service.
“The use of a military service was first and foremost to provide capacity to fight back an enemy,” he explained.
“The discipline, the cohesion, the sense of purpose – all the ideas that we portray when we are talking about national conscription – was never the point of conscription.”
Listen to an interview with Guillaume Lasconjarias on the Spotlight on France podcast:
France already has a limited voluntary military service scheme, introduced in 2015, that aims to teach rigour and professional skills to young people struggling to find work – though most participants do not go on to careers in the military.
Shorter programmes like the Civic Service, introduced in 2010, and the Universal National Service, created in 2019, also aim to promote social engagement among youngsters.
Young people are aware of the geopolitical shifts that are leading France to bolster its defences, and according to Lasconjarias, they are interested in contributing – perhaps more than their parents’ generation.
“Being a professor, I work with these young people quite a lot, and I observe that they are frightened about the status of the world, and they want to do something for their country – if not serve, they want to give back,” he said.
He noted that terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 and Nice in 2016 prompted interest in the military reserves and in the army in general, which became more visible with the anti-terrorist Operation Sentinel patrolling French streets.
'Elite' service
For the new voluntary service to succeed, it must be presented as an elite opportunity, suggests Lasconjarias.
The pay and educational benefits could make it attractive in a way that mandatory service was not. “During the time of conscription, there was always the sense that when you were doing your military duty, you were losing time,” he said.
Incorporating a selection process also makes being picked for the new voluntary service a way for young people to distinguish themselves as they look to enter the job market.
“Because there will be a selection process, it might work as it does in the Nordic countries – where it is very competitive – and that might be an incentive, to have something to include on a CV later,” said Laconjarias.
“In a nutshell, we are enlarging the possibility of recruitment.”
Listen to an interview with Guillaume Lasconjarias on the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 136.
