Conscription in Menghe
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Menghe currently maintains a policy of conscription in order to fill personnel requirements in the Menghean Army and Menghean Navy. Conscripts are required to serve two years in a military role, plus four months of basic training and up to two months of reserve familiarization. At 30 months total, this makes Menghe's conscription term one of the longest in Septentrion.
Since 2006, Menghean conscription has not been universal, but is instead targeted at the most qualified among those eligible. Since 2009, fewer than 40% of eligible males have been summoned for duty every year. This is the result of policies intended to increase the length of military service and bring more volunteers into the Menghean military. As of 2017, however, there are no plans to phase out conscription in Menghe.
History
Conscription has a long history in Menghe, and was first organized on a bureaucratic scale by the Sinŭi Dynasty of the late 19th century. It was revived in 1928 under the leadership of General Kwon after his military coup, and supplied Menghe with a large ground force throughout the Great Conquest War. When the occupying forces ceded independence to the Republic of Menghe government in 1948, they required it to pass a constitutional amendment forbidding the use of conscription in the future.
In the DPRM
In 1965, shortly after the end of the Menghe War of Liberation, the victorious Democratic People's Republic of Menghe reinstated the policy of universal conscription as a means of bolstering the national defense against Dayashina, Sylva, and Tyran. Under this system, all male citizens were required to serve twelve months in the military after reaching the age of 19. This period included training, but was rotated in three "waves" throughout the year, such that at any given time one-third of the army's personnel were in training. Its high annual turnover ensured that all male citizens had past military experience, creating a large reserve of personnel to serve in guerilla units during an armed conflict, but also resulted in low skill levels for active soldiers and high expenses in training. Despite its disadvantages, this system remained in place for forty years, albeit with occasional revisions to the ease of exemption.
Early reforms
After the Decembrist Revolution, the new Menghean government made the decision to draw down the size of its active forces, but representatives of the Army insisted on maintaining a policy of conscription. As a result, the government progressively reformed the National Law on Compulsory Service in order to reduce the number of personnel taken into the military every year.
The first such change, signed into law in 1989, created a civilian national service as an alternative to military service. Unlike civilian service options in other countries, however, civilian national service in Menghe was still carried out in military units, designated "work brigades" (노동 여단 / 勞動旅團, Nodong Yŏdan). Despite their civilian role, they still wore military uniforms, and conducted basic training for the first three months of service. Contrary to some popular accounts, assignment to work brigades was not based on personal preference, but was randomly assigned by the Ministry of Defense.
Throughout the 1990s, only 1/3 to 1/5 of incoming recruits were assigned to actual active-service units, with the remainder assigned to work brigades. Work brigades were often called up for major infrastructure projects, such as road and railway construction, but many were also integrated into factories, mines, and other state-run facilities, often in roles involving manual labor. By the early 2000s, the military structure of the brigades had faded from prominence, and many conscripts were assigned to apprenticeships at Jachi-hoesa but gathered for monthly drills.
In 1994, the Menghean government created a comprehensive exemption for college-bound students, allowing them to defer service indefinitely if accepted into a college or university. Students who refused to enroll, dropped out of college, or were expelled for disciplinary reasons did not receive the exemption and had to report for service the following year. This policy was the result of heavy advocacy by the Ministry of Education, which argued that top-ranked students' academic skills would atrophy if they were pulled out of the education system for a year and assigned to manual labor. At the time, Menghe was still in the early years of its economic miracle, and fewer than 10% of high school graduates progressed directly into tertiary education.
2005 Military Reforms
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After the Menghean military's poor performance in the Ummayan Civil War, the Ministry of Defense ordered comprehensive reforms to its personnel system, with the aim of professionalizing the armed forces without switching to a fully volunteer military. To reduce the turnover in personnel and improve skill retention, the MoD doubled the mandatory term to 24 months' active service, plus training. It also abolished the exemption for college-bound students, replacing it with an optional reserve officer training scholarship which deferred service until completion of a relevant degree. This move was intended to improve the average education of Menghean soldiers and make more skilled personnel available for specialized roles. These changes were first implemented for the generation of recruits born in 1987 and turning 19 on January 1, 2006.
The 2005 military reforms also abolished the work brigades, which had grown unpopular even among factory owners for their members' low skill and frequent absences for training. Instead, any personnel beyond what the military needed to fill its empty positions were exempted from service altogether, though those in the Youth Vanguard would still conduct annual training exercises and be eligible for service in Homeland Defense units. While the Menghean Army doubled in number during this period in response to the threat posed by Maverica, the doubling of the service term and the inclusion of larger numbers of volunteers kept the proportion of eligible youth exempted at around 70%.
Legal basis
Conscription in Menghe is formally underpinned by Article 51 of the Menghean constitution, which states that the government is empowered to request military service of all male citizens between the ages of 19 and 40. In practice, the Menghean government has never used this power to its greatest extent, instead calling up a smaller proportion of each year's 19-year-old cohort. Article 51 does, however, theoretically permit the Menghean government to conscript the entire male population aged 19 to 40 indefinitely (i.e., until turning 40) in the event of a prolonged parity conflict.
Article 52, which follows Article 51, permits the Menghean government to conscript civilians over the age of 17 to engage in non-combat defense activities, including digging fortifications, transporting supplies, standing watch, and producing war materiel. This article may only be invoked if the State Council (or, before 2022, the Chairman of the Supreme Council) declares a state of emergency.
A more detailed outline of Menghe's conscription policy is found in the 2005 Revised Law on Compulsory Service, written up as part of the 2005 military reforms. Amendments to the Revised Law on Compulsory Service require the approval of the National Assembly, but over the last ten years this body has approved all changes endorsed by the Supreme Council. As written, the law also gives the Ministry of Defense considerable leeway in the execution of conscription policy, mainly in order to match intake numbers with empty posts in each year.
Draft process
Eligibility
Both the 1988 Constitution and the Revised Law on Compulsory Service state that a male citizen becomes eligible for conscription after they reach the age of 19. Notably, this is based on Menghe's Standard age reckoning method, and equates to a conventionally measured age of 18 or 19 depending on a person's date of birth. For individuals who progressed through the education system at the regular rate, this means that they become eligible in January of their High School senior year, and can be called up after graduation.
Women in Menghe are not currently subject to conscription, but they are still allowed to volunteer for active service, including in combat roles, provided they can pass a physical fitness test.
Examination
In the month after they reach the conventionally reckoned age of 18, male citizens must report to a military recruiting office for a physical and mental exam, which is then compared with their existing medical and academic records. Based on these results, the Personnel Department determines which individuals qualify for health-related exemptions. It also scores the remainder based on their physical and mental well-being.
Selection
Once the Ministry of Defense has compiled examination records on all individuals turning eighteen that year, it begins the process of narrowing down the subset of eligible males who will be selected for mandatory service. This process takes place in three stages.
First, the Personnel Department determines the number of vacancies that will be present at the beginning of the next year, based on the number of conscripts and volunteers whose contracts will expire and an approximate projection of attrition due to peacetime injuries and disciplinary problems, minus the number of volunteer entrants who have signed on already. It may also order early retirement for volunteer personnel who are ranked poorly in their roles by officers and Gunchal supervisors. In this manner, it determines the exact number of conscripts who must be brought into the armed forces in order to meet their personnel requirements.
Next, it removes from consideration eligible males who fall below "red line" and "green line" exemptions - those who are unfit for service or not subject to conscription. The remainder are defined as the "conscription pool" - those who are eligible for valid selection into the armed forces. The desired number of conscripts minus the size of the conscription pool becomes that year's "conscription ratio."
At this point, the Personnel Department begins the more selective process of determining which eligible conscripts will be selected into the military. Little is known about the exact guidelines used at this stage of the process, as the Ministry of Defense has deliberately kept them classified in order to discourage youth from attempting to game their way out of the system. Broadly speaking, it is known that the Personnel Department considers physical and mental fitness separately, allowing higher-fitness/lower-IQ recruits into supporting roles and lower-fitness/higher-IQ recruits into signal roles. It is also rumored that the Army has a height limit for conscripts recruited as tank crews, though sources disagree on whether this limit is applied at the stage of selection or afterward when conscripts are assigned to different roles.
Using official statistics on the composition of the armed forces, several non-government organizations have observed that Menghean ethnic minorities, namely Daryz, Uzeris, and Argents, make up a disproportionately high share of Menghean military personnel. Some regime critics, including the Menghean Government in Exile, have accused the military of using ethnic minorities as expendable soldiers, though others, especially in academic circles, have argued that the likely goal of the policy is to integrate minorities into the Menghean national identity. Defenders of the latter position point out that minorities in Army units are highly integrated with Meng personnel, rather than being segregated into expendable units.
Training
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On August 1st, all recruits must report for training at their designated camps. This date is chosen in order to ensure that delayed school years do not overlap with the deadline. Basic training for all non-commissioned personnel lasts four months, with the new cohort of recruits entering active units on December 1st. Conscripts then serve two years, after which they can either leave active service when the next cohort arrives, or choose to stay on as volunteers. Those who leave active service must then spend up to two months training in their assigned mobilization reserve unit.
Exceptions
Exemptions from military service in Menghe fall into two categories: "red-line exemptions" and "green-line exemptions." Red-line exemptions are the most restrictive, and amount to an assessment that the individual in question is not fit for military service. Individuals given a red-line exemption are not permitted to serve, although they may appeal the decision and demand a second assessment. Green-line exemptions, by contrast, are less restrictive: while an individual with a green-line exemption is not subject to conscription, they are permitted to volunteer for service anyway, if they choose to do so.
Red-line exemptions
In its current, amended form, the 2005 Revised Law on National Service lists the following conditions as cause for red-line exemptions. Most are medical, but others relate to concerns over political loyalty.
- Severe physical or mental disabilities that impair an individual's day-to-day functioning;
- Non-severe medical conditions which would nevertheless require special treatment in the field, such as diabetes, severe sensitivity to bee stings, epilepsy, impaired hearing, or limited dietary restrictions;
- Acute mental illnesses, or mental illnesses that may result in unstable behavior or learning impediments;
- Illicit drug use or history of illicit drug use, unless accompanied by a signed note from a doctor stating that the individual in question is no longer at risk of relapse;
- A criminal record, of either a single felony or repeated petty crimes;
- Past evidence of political disloyalty or antisocial behavior, including refusal to join Joguk Janyŏ organizations, suspicious contact with members of secessionist, anti-government, or terrorist movements, and political petty crimes; and
- Lack of Menghean citizenship, for foreign permanent residents.
Green-line exemptions
Under the more selective conscription system implemented in 2006, the Personnel Department of the Ministry of Defense was given greater discretion in choosing personnel. As part of this discretion, it has substantially expanded the number of green-line exemptions, as a means of lightening the burden of conscription on the civilian economy and reducing the number of unwilling soldiers brought into the military.
If given a green-line exemption, an individual may still choose to volunteer for service. Depending on the type of exemption, and more broadly the individual's military examination results, a green-line volunteer may be barred from certain roles within the military; for example, a volunteer with mild asthma might be barred from service in infantry units but can still work in logistics and signal units.
- Minor physical impairments, such as color-blindness, knee or back problems, or mild asthma;
- Conscientious objection, though third-party references or other forms of evidence are needed;
- A degree-to-employment tertiary education scholarship granted by a military-related enterprise;
- "National Athlete" status, granted to Olympic athletes and athletes in the Hemithean Games;
- Employment as medical staff in prefectures with a "poor" medical infrastructure rating from the Ministry of Public Health;
- Admission into one of Menghe's top twenty colleges and universities, unless admitted under a military scholarship; and
- Foreign citizenship at birth, having subsequently naturalized into Menghean citizenship.
High school graduates who were allowed to skip ahead in the education system are also exempted, partly to reduce combat mortality among exceptionally gifted learners but also because they might be younger than 18 (in conventionally reckoned years) at the date of enlistment, which would violate Septentrion's international laws on the military use of children. This is a special case, in that it is a red-line exemption for the first year (the individual cannot choose to enlist anyway) but becomes a green-line exemption after they reach the Standard age of 19.
Conscientious Objection
Neither the Greater Menghean Empire nor the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe recognized any form of conscientious objection from conscription, whether on moral, religious, or personal grounds. Like other conscripts who refused to show up for training without a valid exemption, conscientious objectors risked being imprisoned for twice the duration of their conscripted term, and could be sent to military prison units if they continued to disobey orders while in service.
This policy initially remained in place after the Decembrist Revolution, though the prison term was reduced to no more than the full length of conscript service and conscientious objectors were usually sent to separate prison facilities with better conditions.
In 2011, the Ministry of Defense reversed course on this policy and officially recognized a comprehensive list of valid grounds for conscientious objection, including personal moral reasons. It also commuted the sentences of conscientious objectors still serving in Menghean prisons. This move was intended to reduce the number of pacifist personnel in the military, who would otherwise show poor morale and were often vulnerable to hazing. Under the current law, conscientious objectors are given green-line exemptions, meaning they can still serve in non-combat roles if they volunteer to do so.
Academic programs
In addition to the optional exemption for students who accepted admission offers to any of Menghe's top 20 universities, the Ministry of Defense maintains several separate programs for top-performing students, mainly for the purpose of attracting and retaining skilled personnel for technical roles.
Commissioned officers in today's Menghean military are not conscripted, but are exclusively volunteers who enrolled in one of Menghe's military academies, such as the Menghean National Defense Academy. Cadets in military academies automatically have their service deferred, but must serve at least eight years in the military after graduation. Conscripts can also apply for admission into military academies after their two-year service is complete.
The Ministry of Defense also offers an array of "military scholarships," similar in role to the "contract scholarships" offered by Jachi-hoesa. Students who apply for these scholarships are given significant financial aid for tertiary education, in exchange for a written guarantee that they will complete a degree in a relevant area, with programs available for foreign languages, engineering, computer science, and medicine, to name a few. After graduation, the scholarship recipient is then required to serve for at least four years in the military. The Army and Navy use this program to fill certain technical and specialist roles, which demand a high degree of training and benefit from lasting experience at the same post.
"Military scholarships" are also treated as an important avenue of social mobility in Menghe, in that they allow promising students from poor backgrounds to enter skilled positions in the military and then move on to promising careers in the civilian workforce.
Volunteers
Since the 2005 military reforms, the Ministry of Defense has worked to increase the number of volunteer soldiers in the armed forces, or more specifically the number of conscripts renewing their contracts. This policy is intended to improve skill retention and professionalism among the positions that benefit from it most, while keeping the vast bulk of the Army and Navy as conscript forces.
There are two categories of volunteers in the Menghean Armed Forces. The first are "volunteer entrants," individuals who were selected out of conscription but chose to enlist anyway. These soldiers are given two-year terms like their conscript compatriots, and are paid the same conscript wage and assigned to units in the same way.
The second category of volunteers consists of "contract renewals," soldiers who completed their mandatory two-year terms but chose to renew their contracts and remain in the armed forces for renewable four-year terms. This option is only open to soldiers who already completed a two-year term, and is closed off after they leave the mobilization reserves. Contract renewals are usually moved into more skilled roles: depending on their skills and qualifications, they may serve as NCOs in regular Army units, operators of advanced equipment such as radar systems, or soldiers in elite formations, including the Army Special Forces, the Airborne Assault Forces, and the Navy's Marine Infantry.
Evasion
Draft evasion is reportedly not a major problem in Menghe, in part because of the wide range of legal exemptions available. Even with the selective conscription system imposed after 2005, a strong social stigma exists for any individuals accused of evading military service or manipulating their records to avoid selection.
A 2010 audit study funded by the National Institute for the Social Sciences found that out of the thousands of medical records audited, only two showed indications that the individual in question had deliberately sabotaged their own medical well-being in order to avoid consideration for the draft. The same study also argued that the individuals in question exhibited other "self-destructive and antisocial tendencies" which would have rendered them unfit for service anyway.
Concerns do exist over the abuse of exemption laws by Party officials, high-ranking politicians, and well-connected managers, who may use their political influence to ensure that their sons are not selected into the military. The Ministry of Defense has attempted to combat this problem by requiring that recruiters compare both military examinations and past medical records, and turning individual assessments and rankings of records into a double-blind assessment where examinees' names are blocked off and reviewers are kept anonymous. The General-Directorate for Discipline Inspection has also launched high-profile investigations into cases where officials' sons evaded service, leading many politicians to push their children to volunteer in order to avoid accusations of evasion.
The Gunchal operate special domestic units tasked with tracking down and arresting individuals who failed to show up for training or who desert their units in peacetime. Under current law, peacetime draft evasion is punishable by a four-year prison sentence, twice the length of the required conscription term, but offenders are not required to serve in military units afterward. Draft evasion is also prominently listed in one's criminal record, and can disqualify a citizen from certain rights and privileges, including the right to vote in Menghean elections.
Future prospects
Ever since the 2005 military reforms, but especially after 2011, the Ministry of Defense has considered switching to an all-volunteer active force. This would further improve the accumulation of experience in active roles, and reduce the annual expenses associated with training all recruits simultaneously. The Menghean Navy has been an especially strong advocate for this approach, as its own reforms after 2004 resulted in a more technologically advanced active fleet.
In June 2014, the National Assembly formed a committee to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of an all-volunteer military. This debate was abruptly cut short by the Innominadan Crisis, which required Menghe to deploy its active forces into what is now the Republic of Innominada and call up a large share of the mobilization reserves in anticipation of possible escalation to war with Sylva and Maverica.
For the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, this conflict underscored the importance of a large standing force and a large reserve base, and the National Assembly suspended its assessment of volunteer service.
Over the last two years, some officials within the Ministry of Defense have gradually returned to the idea of an all-volunteer active force, but with the addition of a conscripted mobilization reserve. Advocates of this approach have argued that it would improve the active forces' personnel quality while retaining the reserves' size and readiness, while the Army establishment has maintained that a reserve without actual experience in active units would be less reliable in a combat situation. Another source of opposition to a volunteer force comes from institutional lag, as the Army's highest-ranking officers have lived with conscription for their entire adult lives, and many consider an all-volunteer force to be further removed from the idea of military service as a national duty.
For the time being, the Army and Navy appear content to bring in volunteers for technical roles and elite units while maintaining conscripts for the bulk of the armed forces. Over time, however, the share of the armed forces made up of volunteers has rapidly increased, and may surpass 50% of all active personnel by 2020. If this trend continues, the Ministry of Defense could fall under increased pressure to embrace an all-volunteer active force.