It depends on Threat Scenario.
If you are medium or small sized state geographically located close to large and powerful one and have terrible relations (hint: Russia), then Conscription is the only possible solution to have large enough reserves to call up on war, a mere standing army of professionals isn’t enough unless you are the US and have a massive one. You don’t have time to implement concription months into a war. It takes 6 months to train troops into adequate enough soldiers unless it is super ad-hoc.
In the current European geopolitical climate, I think it is very strange if conscription is not enacted. If you are a pacifist, fine, then Civil Defence is an important aspect and much needed and usually part of conscription service (conscripts can usually also be in Civil Defence, aka be civilians and not soldiers).
Note: That states that have conscription will also have a professional force of specialists, as some equippment takes years of training and etc.
Incidentally, in this government white paper that is very fresh, Norway is stating it’s intention to call up 4600 more conscripts and employ the same number of professional troops, while adding 13700 reserves and signifcantly expanding the reserve Home Guard and it’s training and equippment. https://twitter.com/The_Lookout_N/status/1776193544044044569
I think we should call up many more conscripts personally. Reserves are crucial and being a conscript is the best possible training path to becoming a contract soldier if you want such a career. But this is a very good start, although it is on the slim side imo in the current climate. But 2 more ground brigades , very significant submarines, and a serious strenghtening of the Home Guard will make an invasion costly even for RU, with the special geography that we have in Norway (just ask Generaloberst Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, if he was still alive that is; our geography is tricky).
Edit: The point isn’t to wage war against RU. The point is to make war against RU less likely if you are stronger (regarding conscription and armament and so on). No one wants to actually enter the war. But there is a far greater chance of RU venturing forth on another adventure if they win in Ukraine and you are weak. They want to destroy NATO after all, so an attack on NATO territory that they think NATO won’t fight to defend, is what worries many. A test to destroy the integrity of Article 5.
Nobody sane wants it to be necessary, that’s why when a major geopolitical threat disappear, most states that are not agressive, are fast at disarming and decreasing armed forces. But when it return, a ghost of the past. What can you do ? The main responsibillity of any state, is the security of its citizens and keeping its territorial integrity intact. It’s shit. I miss the 90s. I grew up in Scandinavia and what we talked about and dreamed about was a completely different future than this.
The cynic in me wonders if this was a false flag attack by the Russians. It makes absolutely no sense for the Ukrainians to strike a nuclear plant on what they want to be their territory.
Russia wants to control Ukraine under some misguided dream of re-establishing the Soviet Union. In my opinion, they would likely not think twice to leave Ukraine a nuclear wasteland if they can’t have it themselves
If they think they will struggle to gain control over the rest of Ukraine? Who knows, but I wouldn’t put it past Putin to be that petulant and spoilt baby-ish
Russia have already shown that they’re perfectly comfortable with razing the occupied territory to the ground. two years in and there are NO signs of stopping.
It might very well be a Ukrainian drone strike. Or it may be more Russian sabotage (which happened in 2022 twice) calculated to not cause actual damage but political. I don’t know. 50/50 I think. As usual, these strikes around the plant is calculated to not cause actual damage to reactors.
But Russia is using the nuclear plant to store heavy equippment close to the front but safe. I know what I think about that (it’s a war crime, but there are so many of them).
The current state of Russia’s mechanised fleet in Ukraine. It has changed and is changing a lot.
Today we even see World War 2-like Tankovsky (tank-borne platoons) detachments, for lack of IFVs at some segments of the front. I’ll scroll a bit, see if I can find a very recent video. A moment…
The Russians are methodically striking and making Kharkiv, Ukraine’s third biggest city, unlivable. And you don’t read about it daily in news papers. It is absurd. This should be front pages news in all European papers every single day, but it isn’t. It is a disagrace how removed from the war the daily Western news routine has become.