British Citizen Army: Preparing the ‘pre-war generation’ for conflict

Talk of a wider war in Europe and the potential need for large-scale mobilization and “citizen armies” may sound alarming. But General Sir Patrick Saunders, head of the British Army, is not alone in calling for the nation to prepare for a major conflict on European soil.

Last week, another senior NATO military official said countries needed to be vigilant and “plan for the unexpected.” Admiral Rob Bauer, who heads the alliance’s military committee, said the nation needs to change its mindset for an era in which “anything can happen at any time.”

The British Secretary of Defense also warned of the need to prepare for war. In his first major defense speech, Grant Shapps said the country was moving from “a post-war world to a pre-war world”.

He highlighted a number of threats, but there is a common thread among all these warnings: Russia.

“We have to take into account that President Vladimir Putin could even attack NATO countries someday,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently told a German newspaper. He said that while such an attack is currently unlikely, “our experts estimate that the potential window is five to eight years.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine focused the military consciousness of Western countries.

As General Patrick Sanders said multiple times in his speech Wednesday, “Ukraine really matters.” He said Russia’s ambition was not just to seize territory, but to “overthrow our system and way of life politically, psychologically and symbolically.”

There is a sense in the upper echelons of the British military that many politicians and most of the public do not understand the threat they see. It is the military’s duty to analyze that threat, but they could still be proven wrong. But European countries close to Russia’s borders appear to be taking the issue more seriously.

General Sanders specifically mentioned Sweden. Earlier this month, the Minister of Civil Defense told the National Defense Council that “a war could break out in Sweden.” Karl Oscar Bolin asked the people: “Have you ever thought about whether you have time to join a self-defense organization? If not, start moving!” His comments were backed up by the country’s top military commander, who said Sweden needed to be mentally prepared.

Some people in Japan criticized this statement, saying it incited alarm. However, some people are responding by “preparing for war” by stockpiling food and fuel.

Many European countries also conduct training for civil emergencies, involving not only the military but also civilians. This is often called “total defense.”

Many Nordic countries, including Sweden, have already introduced conscription in their militaries.

Conscription requires young men and women to serve in uniform for a specified period of time. This means that a portion of the population has undergone military training and could be assigned to reserve units in the event of war.

In Sweden and Norway, conscription is partial and not everyone is drafted. However, it often augments the strength of relatively small professional armies.

Finland, a new member of NATO and a country with an 800-mile border with Russia, is expanding its military conscription. Approximately 80% of the male population has completed some form of military service. Refusal could result in a prison sentence, but there is also the option of wearing a uniform and becoming a civil servant.

The overall effect means that Finland can muster one of the largest armies in Europe. The size of the active-duty military is only 19,000, but she can also send in a reserve force of 238,000.

In the UK, National Military Service (the country’s old name for conscription) ended in 1960. There are no plans to revive it.

General Sanders did not call for conscription in his speech. He is a strong believer in a professional military made up of volunteers. However, he maintained that if war broke out, the number of troops would be too small.

Due to cuts, the size of the British Army has fallen from more than 100,000 in 2010 to around 73,000 today. General Saunders said the British Army needs to increase its strength by 120,000 troops within the next three years, including the addition of reserves. But even that is not enough, he said, so the Army can expand rapidly to “enable the first tier, resource the second tier, and train and equip the citizen forces that will follow.” He said it should be designed.

He added: “Ukraine brutally shows that regular forces start wars and militias win them.”

So what did he mean by citizen army? He was not advocating conscription or an imminent call for a volunteer army. Instead, he called on Britain to prepare for a mass mobilization of tens of thousands of people in case war broke out. This will require a shift in government planning and thinking.

Downing Street seemed unenthusiastic, saying the general’s hypothetical scenario was unhelpful.

However, the Army is already considering ways to create a citizen army. A Whitehall official told the Times that training Ukrainian civilians on British soil could be a dry run for a rapid expansion of the army.

Training and equipping that large army will inevitably require more funding. The government says it wants to spend 2.5% of national income on defense, but has not yet announced the timing.

General Sanders’ speech was intended to be a wake-up call to the nation. But without political support, it is unlikely that the mindset of a country that doesn’t believe a war will change will change.

A former senior minister suggested to me that there is a generational divide between those who have lived with Cold War threats and those who have not. The former minister and current Conservative MP said the prime minister had grown up without such existential threats.