A volunteer military system or all volunteer military system (AVMS) is a military service system that maintains the military only with applicants without compulsory conscription. A country may offer attractive pay and benefits through
military recruitment
Military recruitment refers to the activity of attracting people to, and selecting them for, military training and employment.
Demographics
Gender
Across the world, a large majority of recruits to state armed forces and non-state arme ...
to attract potential recruits. Many countries with volunteer militaries reserve the right to renew conscription in the event of an emergency.
The
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
is the world's largest standing volunteer army.
In recent decades, the trend among numerous countries has been to move from conscription to all-volunteer military forces. One significant example is in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, which has historically been
the first to introduce modern conscription and whose model was followed by many other countries in Europe and elsewhere around the world.
Volunteer military
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See also
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Conscription
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Mercenaries
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Military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require ...
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Military volunteer
A military volunteer (or ''war volunteer'') is a person who enlists in military service by free will, and is not a conscript, mercenary, or a foreign legionnaire. Volunteers sometimes enlist to fight in the armed forces of a foreign country, fo ...
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United States Volunteers
United States Volunteers also known as U.S. Volunteers, U.S. Volunteer Army, or other variations of these, were military volunteers called upon during wartime to assist the United States Army but who were separate from both the Regular Army and the ...
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Volunteer Force (Great Britain)
The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Volunteer Military
Types of military forces