National Service Suspension Order
| National Service Suspension Order 1988 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Executure | |
| |
| Citation | 991/112-0462 |
| Territorial extent | Kiravian Collectivity |
| Enacted by | Ivardus Kólsylvar |
| Enacted | 1988 AD |
| Related legislation | |
| National Service Act | |
| Summary | |
| Indefinitely suspended the recruitment and enlistment of new conscripts under the National Service system, while leaving registration requirements and other provisions of the National Service Act in operation. | |
| Status: Current legislation | |
The National Service Suspension Order is an executive order issued by PE Ivardus Kólsylvar in 1988 AD. It exercised the authority reserved to the Prime Executive under the National Service Act to suspend the enlistment of new conscripts into the Kiravian Armed Forces on the basis of the military's manpower needs and logistical considerations.
Background
During the Sunderance, both the Kiravian Union and Kiravian Remnant practised military conscription. The Federalist government based on Æonara emulated the National Service system in place in the neighbouring Cape. The Kiravian National Service system was intended to mobilise the Remnant's much-reduced population in order to deter aggression against its remaining scattered territories and ultimately retake the Mainland, while fostering a sense of national unity and shared purpose. The Kiravian Union relied on both military conscription and corvée labour for defence, major infrastructure projects, and other labour-intensive public undertakings.
Kiravian reunification in 1985 AD changed the calculus underlying both conscription policies. The restored Federalist government found itself in a far less precarious strategic position and now faced the difficult and expensive task of reintegrating the Mainland under its rule.
The 1985 draft was postponed and ultimately cancelled on the Mainland due to the complexities of the reunification process, but went forward in the former Remnant, due to the unresolved Sydonan Question and lingering fears of armed resistence on the Mainland. A draft also occurred in Sydona, which operated as a de facto independent Kirosocialist rump state for much of that year. The draft resumed nationwide in 1986, but only a fraction of the draft class (35% in the former Remnant, 20% in the former Union) were enlisted into active service, with the majority being assigned directly to reserve duty or to civilian service (45% in the Remnant, 20% in the former Union) or excused.
Implementation
According to Rough Draft, Mévar Ríladorian's seminal work on the topic, high-level discussions about the future of conscription began almost immediately after reunification was formalised, but did not crystallise into serious policy proposals until 1986, by which time Federalist control over the Mainland and Sydona was secure and High Command had a more complete organisational understanding of the former KPA that it was tasked with absorbing.
With the 1986 draft date approaching and the high costs of administering Great Kirav's bloated population and revitalising its imploded economy weighing heavily on the restored government, the Executive College and the Stanora's Defence Committee sought recommendations from the general staff, government analysts, and independent think-tanks on how to proceed. The vast majority of recommendations solicited concluded that conscription should be scaled back and eventually abandoned. The most prominent dissenting voice came from the journal of the United Allegiance Society, which argued that extending National Service with a larger civilian component to the liberated provinces and women was necessary to foster renewed national solidarity, implement cultural/ideological de-Kirsokisation, manage the youth unemployment that would result from coming market reforms, and assist humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in underdeveloped provinces.
The case for retaining National Service made in the UAS journal was presented to the Defence Committee by Delegate Vin Pertamin of West Æonara, widely reprinted in the mainstream press, and found persuasive by many. However, the Committee and the Executive College nonetheless approved the general staff's request for a smaller levy. The large number of excusals granted to the '86 draft class, combined with the contraction of many local economies on the Mainland, prompted reconsideration of the UAS' arguments, but proposals for mandatory civilian service on the Mainland were found to be too costly.
According to Ríladorian, the Kólsylvar administration had already resolved to suspend National Service in early 1987, but allowed a further-reduced draft to proceed that year at the request of the Citadel, citing delays in launching its volunteer recruitment system and a need for manpower to assist with non-combat "transition operations".
Kólsylvar finally issued the National Service Suspension Order and corresponding military orders in the early days of 1988. The Order suspended recruitment and enlistment through the National Service system. Subsequent legislation addressed the fate of the various civilian service components and the defunding of the National Service bureaucracy apart from the National Levy Bureau. However, the National Service Act remains in force, and registration for the draft (which could be reäctivated by the Prime Executive at any time) remains compulsory for resident Kiravian nationals and for resident aliens on immigration visas.
Reception
The suspension of conscription was welcomed by the military brass and enjoyed broad consensus among the political class. To the surprise of some, its reception among the general population was more tepid. Many citizens raised in the former Remnant, especially those who had completed their NS term, viewed the system as an important national institution and lifecycle milestone. Citizens from both halves of the newly-reunited nation shared concerns that reliance on volunteers would weaken the nation's defences. On the Mainland, where conditions for conscripts in the Kiravian People's Army had been less than stellar and memories thereof correspondingly less fond, there was less overt opposition to the order. However, many citizens raised in the Kiravian Union still had reservations about the end of conscription, including fears that, combined with the dominance of former Remnant officers in the new command structure, the reunified Kiravian Forces would not be a "people's army" representative of the national majority, but rather a repressive instrument of the Æonaran élite.
Several states, mostly in the former Remnant, vowed to preserve National Service at the provincial level, and their legislatures drew up plans to draft resident youth into their state defence forces and civilian service programmes. Of the several plans drafted, fewer were implemented, and most were abandoned within two years. The surviving Provincial Service systems in the former Remnant all saw their military component attenuated from full-time militia service to mandatory reserve and training programmes for men, and saw their civilian service programmes expanded and opened to both genders.
Provincial Service on the reserve + civilian corps model continues today in West Æonara, Umcara State, Suderavia, and the Krasoa Islands. Compulsory reserve service continues in Porfíria and Kyllera, and was temporarily reïntroduced in other parts of Kiravian Crona during the Deluge.