Risks and recruitment in postmodern armed forces: The case of Belgium

Taking the Belgian Armed Forces as a case study, this article assesses the impact of new constabulary missions on the recruitment prospects of military personnel in postmodern armed forces. In particular, it analyzes the complex relationship between these new missions, the risks to personnel, the public image of the armed forces, and recruitment prospects. The article first compares the objective level of risks of various occupations and describes the impact of the Rwandan tragedy on the official Belgian defense policy concerning troop deployments. Second, a theoretical framework is presented within which the issue of risks and recruitment can be analyzed. Finally, empirical data coming from various surveys conducted among representative samples of the Belgian population and of the Belgian Armed Forces are used to illustrate this framework.