With a more dangerous international climate the need for states to expand their armed forces has become more prominent. When the supply of volunteers is too low, states turn to conscription in order to fulfill the demand for fighters. This thesis asks the research question; How does the recruitment strategy affect the treatment of recruits within state armed forces? By combining pre-existing theories of rebel recruitment, socialization and militarized masculinity, this thesis argues that utilizing conscription as recruitment strategy increases the amount of mistreatment recruits face. To explain the causal relationship between conscription and mistreatment, a perceived lack of commitment to the ideals of militarized masculinity is proposed as the causal mechanism. Due to the masculinity norms mentioned within the causal mechanism, the thesis argues that female recruits will face high levels of mistreatment independently of recruitment strategy. Utilizing a structured, focus analysis method, the thesis tests this theory on three different time periods within the Swedish armed forces history. The empirical data used was decisions made by the Swedish armed forces disciplinary board. The empirical evidence gives minor and inconclusive evidence in support of the theory. Unnecessary endangerment of recruits increases with the use of conscription.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-531758 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Hansson, Pontus |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för freds- och konfliktforskning |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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