I think there’s value to mandatory military service when your aims are primarily defensive. Country gets invaded and not only are there lots of people in the army already, but also there’s plenty of reserves who just need refresher training. When you’re the one getting invaded, you usually don’t have problems with motivation unless the current regime has really fucked up.

When you try to use a largely conscripted army for invasions, like Russia is doing, people start to wonder why the hell they’re doing this.

Conversely, when your country is known for military adventurism like the United States, it’s easier to motivate volunteers. They signed up for this, and as fucked up as it is, they almost want to be sent off to war in some far off land. England also has generally used a volunteer military throughout its imperialist history. Giving your citizens the choice works better if you’re going to be doing imperialism.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.