Military structure reform ‘vital’

Date: 29/04/04

EUROPE should better integrate immigrants into its armies, to overcome the present shortage of volunteers for the armed service and keep pace with America's military might, a leading US defence expert has warned.

Cindy Williams, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has warned that Europe faces an uphill struggle to match America's military power in coming years, unless it reforms its military personnel structures.

In comparison with the US, Europe had failed to adequately address the consequences of abolishing its conscripted armies, Williams said. Since the end of the Cold War, 12 European countries have dropped military conscription while America abolished the draft in 1973.

However, dwindling numbers are volunteering for the armed services in Europe and this, coupled with defence budget cuts, has left the continent's military capabilities failing to keep pace with America's.

Williams suggests the best way to find new volunteers would be for a newly enlarged EU to aim for greater integration of immigrants into its military forces.

"After the draft was abolished in the US, we did this to great effect with African-Americans being integrated into the army and it could be that the expansion of the EU will enable Europe to do the same," she said. "Indeed, there are signs that this is already happening.

"Belgium has already taken a lead by suggesting it opens its military to any citizen from anywhere in the EU, while Spain has proposed granting Spanish citizenship to Latin-American immigrants who wish to sign up for military service."

Williams, principal research scientist of the security studies programme at MIT, added that this could be a way to tackle "the problem of bridging the transition from a conscripted to a voluntary military".

"However, integrating immigrants into the military from new EU member states could, in turn, result in these mostly eastern European countries facing a drain on their military forces."

She also warned the US may have to reintroduce conscription to tackle increasing demands on the military, particularly in Iraq: "Something will have to be done because current troop levels in Iraq are totally unsustainable."

Williams was speaking on the EU's security and defence policy and its implications on transatlantic relations at an event organized by the Transatlantic Centre of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Cindy Williams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes Europe should integrate immigrants into its armies to overcome a shortage of armed service volunteers and keep pace with US military power.