If we are to prepare for World War III, is it time to consider conscription like Germany does?

WWhen Emmy Vilander turned 18, she received, like everyone her age in Sweden, an official email from the Swedish government. She was asked if she would consider being drafted into the Swedish Army as part of Sweden’s “total defense” service and asked how fit she was, if she had any health problems and how his motivation.

“I thought it might be a good thing (to do),” Vilander recalls – and so she duly filled out the form. Soon after, she found herself in the far north of Sweden learning how to take apart a rifle, shoot a gun, and build a shelter (as well as “basic things like how to keep a locker tidy and how to make your bed.) By the end of his 10-month military service, Vilander could also drive a tank in various terrains. “You learn a lot about yourself – you know you can do more than you think you can,” she tells me. “I thought it was going to be really hard – and it was – but it was also fun.”

Vilander is now 21 and studies political science at university in his hometown of Stockholm. But she could be called at any time to serve her country. Like anyone in Sweden between the ages of 16 and 70. Sweden, which is now preparing to join NATO, implemented its Total Defense Strategy in 2017, meaning that everyone’s contact details are kept on file for service from their 18th birthday and that everyone can be called in at any time if necessary.