The volunteer military and the rest of the iceberg

Abstract

Most discussions of the volunteer military have concentrated upon either the social costs of conscription or the level of entry pay needed to attract sufficient numbers of volunteers. These studies have neglected the impact of movement toward a volunteer military on the management of the military force as a whole. The central theme of this paper is that many of the largest personnel problems are exacerbated, if not caused by, the incentive system. Many of these incentives—incorporated in the pay and retirement structure and the training and utilization patterns for personnel—were developed for historic reasons that are no longer applicable. With the introduction of a volunteer military, mistakes in the personnel system become more costly. Adjustment of the most perverse incentives could lead to a self-correction of many glaring problems.