Drive Time Show Podcast: Conscription & Ageing
Conscription into military service had been a long-standing practice throughout history that today has been almost universally replaced by all-volunteer armies. Conscription provided a mechanism by which people in societies that are fragmenting into tribal communities could work with others, thereby fostering social cohesion, says Brad Allenby, a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, part of the Fulton Schools, and founding chair of the Consortium for Emerging Technologies, Military Operations, and National Security. On this podcast, Allenby discusses the societal ramifications of a waning sense of national duty reflected by a lack of conscription today, when all branches of the U.S. military have fallen short of their enlistment goals.