{"id":378122,"date":"2025-08-27T17:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378122\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:02:09","slug":"germany-debates-mandatory-military-service-for-both-men-and-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378122\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany debates mandatory military service for both men and women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Alimat Aliyeva<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Germany, there is growing discussion around the idea of<br \/>\nmaking military or national service in the Bundeswehr<br \/>\ncompulsory\u2014not just for men, but for women as well,<br \/>\n<strong>Azernews<\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n<p>According to Tagesspiegel, Thomas R\u00f6wekamp, the chairman of the<br \/>\nBundestag&#8217;s Defense Committee, has voiced strong support for the<br \/>\ninitiative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that every man and woman\u2014regardless of whether they<br \/>\nare of German or foreign origin\u2014should dedicate a year of their<br \/>\nlives to serving our society,\u201d R\u00f6wekamp said. \u201cEvery year, around<br \/>\n700,000 young people graduate from schools and universities in<br \/>\nGermany. The government needs to explain to them that they have a<br \/>\nresponsibility to contribute to peace, freedom, democracy, and<br \/>\nprosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While R\u00f6wekamp supports the concept of universal service, he<br \/>\nadmitted that a legislative amendment introducing mandatory<br \/>\nmilitary conscription for both sexes is unlikely to gain majority<br \/>\nsupport in the Bundestag at this time.<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, the proposal doesn&#8217;t strictly focus on armed<br \/>\nservice. The vision includes various forms of civic<br \/>\nengagement\u2014volunteering in social, environmental, or medical<br \/>\nsectors. This broader model resembles national service programs in<br \/>\ncountries like Sweden or Israel, where conscription includes both<br \/>\ncivilian and military options.<\/p>\n<p>Germany suspended mandatory conscription in 2011, transitioning<br \/>\nto an all-volunteer military. However, amid rising geopolitical<br \/>\ntensions and increasing pressure on NATO countries to bolster<br \/>\ndefense capabilities, conversations about reinstating some form of<br \/>\nnational service have resurfaced.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of including women in compulsory service reflects<br \/>\nchanging social norms and an effort to modernize civic<br \/>\nresponsibility in line with gender equality. If implemented,<br \/>\nGermany would be among the few European countries to require<br \/>\nuniversal service from both men and women.<\/p>\n<p>Public opinion on the matter remains divided\u2014some see it as a<br \/>\nvaluable opportunity to foster unity and civic responsibility,<br \/>\nwhile others argue it infringes on personal freedom and may not be<br \/>\neffective in addressing military recruitment challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alimat Aliyeva In Germany, there is growing discussion around the idea of making military or national service&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[12619,7503,12622,7502,1500,3085,12621,1700,2000,299,12620,1824,5387,285,12618,461,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-378122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-analytics","9":"tag-azerbaijan","10":"tag-azernews","11":"tag-baku","12":"tag-breaking-news","13":"tag-business-news","14":"tag-company-news","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-eu","17":"tag-europe","18":"tag-financial-news","19":"tag-germany","20":"tag-oil-and-gas-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-socar","23":"tag-turkey","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115101810393571998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}