My idea is for military service to be required for all citizens of every country. By having such required military service, citizens of every nation would have more of a stake in the decisions of their sovereignty. Moreover, if everyone was required to serve in the military for their country, I think it would promote world peace as most people do not want to go to war. It would provide a greater threshold for nations to go to war, as the people in power may have a different stance on initiating a conflict if their children may potentially be putting their lives at risk.
Israel has such required military service and their citizens have seen the benefits of the policy. Not only does it help prevent unnecessary conflicts, it also empowers the youth to take on responsibilities they would not normally assume until they are older. People in their mid twenties have the potential to be officers or commanders, making crucial decisions. This responsibility helps mold more responsible citizens their nation, and thus by requiring service for all nations, it would make everyone a better citizen of our global community. Required military service would make the world a better place.
An Example of Required Service:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 
How would you suggest handling those who could not participate (ie. those who do not participate in the military due to religious reasons)? Could this be considered an infringement of freedoms in the United States?
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Hi Kate, you pose two wonderful questions I did not have time to consider in my 60 second pitch. Thank you for your response, i was striving to ignite a bit of debate/controversy over the proposed policy change, success!
(1) How would you suggest handling those who could not participate (ie. those who do not participate in the military due to religious reasons)?
In terms of those required to serve under such a new policy, I’m making a (possibly falsely) assumption that this belief is primarily related to their individual refusal to participate in physical/violent conflict. Although I am unaware of the details of religious beliefs beyond the aforementioned refusal to physically participate in conflict, I do share the belief that war in all most all cases is unjust as the people on the ground generally seem to be fighting solely because their government believes it to be necessary.
Ironically the solider on both sides, in many cases, have no reason to be killing one another, but do so only because by the war declared by those who are in power and commonly removed form the repercussions. (purposefully missing statistic)
These conflicts, declared by one of their or of their oppositions other sovereign, have put these youth in a life or dearth situation – at gun point across from one another. Yet, by requiring military service for all nations, the personal impact of a conflict on the entire population may have a nation rethink if such a conflict is worth the lives of their youth (and or children/brothers).
(2) Could this be considered an infringement of freedoms in the United States?
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/christmas-truce-of-1914/videos
(Continuing to edit)
Joe Nano ’16 Accounting and Financial Management Major | Bucknell University 203-979-1418 | jjn007@bucknell.edu LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joseph-nano/59/3b2/549/
On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 10:39 AM, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly wrote:
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Hey Joe! Did you know Professor Gruver has the same great idea? Israel has mandatory service after age 18, and its open to Jewish Americans who want to serve. I’ve actually known a few Jewish people from America who went over to Israel to serve in the army for personal growth reasons. I think this would no doubt build patriotism and discipline in our generation, which has been cited as lacking these qualities. But don’t you think it would be a hard transition?
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I know about this, but I don’t get how that works. In general if a US citizen serves in any country’s military, it is considered an act of renouncing your US citizenship.
“Although a person’s enlistment in the armed forces of a foreign country may not constitute a violation of U.S. law, it could subject him or her to the provisions of Section 349(a)(3) of the INA [8 U.S.C. 1481(a)(3)] which provides for loss of U.S. nationality if a U.S national voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. nationality enters or serves in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the United States or serves in the armed forces of any foreign country as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer.”
http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-and-dual-nationality/citizenship-and-foreign-military-service.html
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Hey Jack, I am aware that Professor Gruver wants to put the required service policy in place in the United States yet I think the effects of doing this on a global level would have much different impacts. This is primarily with the promotion of peace via people in power, who are normally older, whom would not want to send the younger generation (who may be their children). I agree that partiotism is lacking in our generation and I think thats something this policy would also help solidify.
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If your idea was implemented, I think it would be interesting to somehow measure the nationalistic and patriotic attitudes of a country before the implementation, 5 years after the implementation, 10 years, ect…
Do you think there would be a change on the way people perceive their country? Loyalty to their country? Would a law requiring services shape and define people’s view of patriotism?
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My Spanish cousins, all older then me, served in the facist regime’s compulsory military in Spain. They generally agreed it was a waste of time and an exercise in being servile to petty, arbitrary bureaucracy.
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The majority of my family on my Dad’s side was also forced to fight for a Mussolini, even though they disagreed with his beliefs and helped hide jews from the nazi’s was well as the Italians under Mussolini.
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However, it is also attractive for the US at least. The number of congresspeople with relatives or children in the military is small, and smaller everyday, I think. If the cost of going to war was born by more people, we might slow down in our eagerness to go to war.
I would tweak your idea to say service and let people choose military, domestic community service, or peace corps. We might need 100,000 people teaching kids to read in Head Start programs more then we need 100,000 soldiers geared up with nowhere to go.
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And, Israel is not exactly a country known for NOT having wars. I know, I know, it is complicated, but still…
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