Taking the Belgian Armed Forces as a case study, this article assesses the impact of new constabulary missions on the recruitment prospects of military personnel in postmodern armed forces. In particular, it analyzes the complex relationship between these new missions, the risks to personnel, the public image of the armed forces, and recruitment prospects. The article first compares the objective level of risks of various occupations and describes the impact of the Rwandan tragedy on the official Belgian defense policy concerning troop deployments. Second, a theoretical framework is presented within which the issue of risks and recruitment can be analyzed. Finally, empirical data coming from various surveys conducted among representative samples of the Belgian population and of the Belgian Armed Forces are used to illustrate this framework.

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This article reports some preliminary results from a comparative research project on how security issues have been perceived in the twelve E.C. countries since the early 1970s among the mass public. This period has been characterized by breathtaking changes in the political and military world environment. How have Europeans reacted to these changes and what are their opinions on the future shape of European defense policy? The empirical evidence is based on a secondary analysis of public opinion surveys conducted in the European Community in the last twenty-one years. The trend analyses show that Europeans are overwhelmingly favorable to the creation of a common European security organization. This does not mean, however, that NATO is no longer thought to be essential or that the E.C. should supplant or replace NATO as the most important forum for making decisions about the security of Western Europe.

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Belgium and the Netherlands were the first two countries in continental Europe to abolish conscription after the Cold War. Notwithstanding differences in organizational practices, as well as in civil-military culture, decisionmaking in both countries was driven by the same motives and followed a similar pattern. The twofold logic of much smaller armed forces and new missions made the choice for an all-volunteer force almost inevitable. The ideology legitimizing the draft for so long appeared to have lost much of its magic and most of its political supporters from left and right. While there is a general awareness that recruitment will be vital for the success of an all-volunteer force, the profile of the new soldiers, in terms of motivation and representativeness, has crystallized in neither country. This can be looked upon as a crucial civil-military challenge. Probably more countries than the two under review will face this challenge in the near future. Given the structural forces at work all over Europe, the case for conscription and its citizenship surplus value will be more and more marginalized. The zero draft will become the rule rather than the exception, finalizing the long-term decline of the mass army.