If your goal is to cut costs then just lower budgets. If your goal is to get people because nobody wants to then maybe you shouldn't be at war since nobody wants to support it.
And yes, you're civilian skills are considered for your role in most any military. Most places just don't have mandatory service.
But the 5 Eyes militaries don’t do a very good job of leveraging civilian skillsets of their Reserve/National Guard soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
We talk about it all the time, and we try, but we haven’t been consistently successful.
A few halo casts to brag about?
Absolutely.
But consistently?
Nope.
Tons of latent intellectual and SME value waiting to be captured and focused.
Conscription works in some countries like Switzerland and Israel.
But it is like a “life tax”.
Several years of productive life involuntarily “taxed” by the state.
It does provide positive benefits such as buy-in, having made a tangible sacrifice for society.
As a volunteer soldier, I think we might be better served with having more ways to enter the military part-time.
Think more corporate uniform contractor than camouflage uniform locked into indentured servitude for esoteric skillsets.
Nevertheless, maybe there should be.
Not mass enlistment for large scale combat, but drafting people who have critical technical skills should be considered.
The current approach of filling gaps in technical knowledge with contractors is toxic.
If people have rare, technical knowledge necessary to safeguard our country, they should be required to be in the reserves.
I believe Switzerland has a system where citizens hold a role in the military analogous to the civilian position.
That’s a great freaking idea.