From Conscription to Expeditionary Armed Forces: Trends in the Professionalisation of the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces

Public support, political decision making and the changed international security constellation in the early nineties were such that conscription was no longer justifiable by Dutch society and politics. Conscription itself was not abolished, but the draft was suspended, which enables the state to reintroduce conscription in the case of emergency. Suspension of the draft was the beginning of a professional army based on the structure of an all-volunteer force. The decisions made led to many changes in force structure, recruitment, tasks, and public support. Professionalization of the armed forces appeared to be a challenging change process, and many problems had to be solved at a time the military was confronted with new challenges.