Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

has had partial

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

for both men and women since 2017. After completing training, conscripts are placed in the reserve and assigned positions in the

table of organization and equipment A table of organization and equipment (TOE or TO&E) is the specified organization, staffing, and equipment of Military unit, military units. Also used in acronyms as 'T/O' and 'T/E'. It also provides information on the mission and capabilities of ...

of a reserve unit.

History

Between the 17th century and 1900, Sweden had an allotment system. Mandatory military service for men was introduced in 1901. During the height of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, about 85% of Swedish men were conscripted. In 2010, the male-only system was replaced with a gender-neutral conscription system; at the same time conscription was mothballed. Mandatory conscription was re-activated by the then

Social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

government in 2017, which cited increased threats to national security. The

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces (, literally ''Defence Force'') are the Military, armed forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. It consists of four separate military branches, the Swedish Army, the Swedish Navy, the Swedish Air Force and the Home Guard (Swed ...

planned to call 4,000 recruits annually for basic military training in 2018 and 2019. As the relevant age cohort was about 100,000, this meant that roughly 4% were to be enlisted. Beginning in 2018, over 4,000 conscripts were indeed called up. 85% of those called up were men; the percentage of female conscripts was gradually increased over the following years, reaching 20% in 2022 and 24% in 2023. The conscripts were chosen from a pool of approximately 13,000 young people born in 1999 to serve for 12 months. In early 2019, after fines had been received by dozens of young people for draft evasion, the first jail sentences since the return of conscription were handed out to those refusing to carry out their military service.

Non-military service

Conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

s in Sweden have the right to choose

alternative service Alternative civilian service, also called alternative services, civilian service, non-military service, and substitute service, is a form of national service performed in lieu of military conscription for various reasons, such as conscientious ...

. After completing alternative service, the conscript then belongs to the civilian reserve.

Conscript officers

From 1983 to 2010, some conscripts had their service period extended to 450 days to allow for company command training. During the extended training, they held the rank of

sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

s. After training, they were placed in the reserve as second lieutenants and assigned as

platoon leader A platoon leader (NATO) or platoon commander (more common in Commonwealth militaries and the US Marine Corps) is the officer in charge of a platoon. This person is usually a junior officer – a second or first lieutenant or an equivalent rank ...

s or

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land army, armies, a quartermaster is an officer who supervises military logistics, logistics and requisitions, manages stores or barracks, and distri ...

s in the TOE. Such "conscript officers" could not be promoted further unless they completed regular officer training at a military academy.

References

{{Conscription in Europe

Military of Sweden