Budgetary savings from conscription and burden sharing in NATO

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Abstract
Burden sharing in NATO has been a topic of interest since the early years of the alliance, but many analysts have suggested that the validity of comparisons involving allied defence expenditures is limited by differences in the means by which the allies recruit personnel. Nations that conscript individuals into military service are generally thought to make a hidden contribution to collective security. Building primarily on the work of van Ypersele de Strihou (1967), this article reports estimates of the budgetary savings from conscription for eight NATO countries for 1974 and 1981 and six of these allies for 1987. The best estimate of the value of conscription as a percentage of national military expenditures averaged 9.2 percent in 1974, 6.5 percent in 1981, and 5.7 percent in 1987. The significance of these results for the debate over burden sharing is considered.

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