The Taliban swept to victory in Afghanistan faster than anyone had expected. There were several reasons: massive corruption, struggles among government factions, warlords dividing the country and a lack of a long-term vision for the nation.
Afghan government forces, which consisted of more than 300,000 soldiers and were equipped with US-made Black Hawk helicopters and other advanced equipment, were ingloriously defeated by a mere 60,000 Taliban fighters.
However, a closer look at background factors reveals one thing that Taiwan should learn from: a voluntary military service.
In the final days of providing financial aid to Afghanistan, Western democracies realized that more than 60 percent of the funds were spent on administrative and personnel expenses. Simply put, Afghanistan had a volunteer military system, and despite continuous civil war, the country still relied on the US to pay the salaries of its military personnel.
As it is difficult to make a living in Afghanistan, where the situation is chaotic and territory is controlled by warlords. Many people joined the army simply to make a living. They came from various tribes and provinces in Afghanistan, and their allegiance was to the salary, not the country. Once the situation changed and it was possible that the government would be unable to pay their salaries, they abandoned their jobs, dispersing in no time.
In Taiwan, the public has never stopped questioning the voluntary military service after its implementation in 2018, when it replaced the conscription system that had been in place since 1945.
The American Institute in Taiwan, the US Department of State and several think tanks have repeatedly questioned Taiwan’s voluntary military service system, and even said that Taiwan lacks the determination to defend itself and has insufficient crisis awareness.
The Control Yuan said bluntly in a report that it has not been proven that Taiwan’s combat readiness under the voluntary system is better than under the conscription system.
In other words, the government’s promotion of voluntary military service is not as effective as expected, and this poses a major national security risk.
Moreover, according to the Ministry of National Defense annual budget, the military’s personnel maintenance costs exceeds NT$140 billion (US$5.03 billion), which is close to 50 percent of the total national defense budget — in Afghanistan, it was 60 percent on average.
The Legislative Yuan Budget Center said in a report that through various bonuses and benefits, it is “easy to increase, but difficult to reduce” personnel expenses in the armed forces. This will inevitably reduce the budget funds available for the improvement of equipment and training, as well as high-tech battle readiness and exercises.
Lithuania and Sweden reactivated conscription in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
The rapid defeat of the Afghan army is also thought-provoking.
The Control Yuan’s report highlighted five major shortcomings of voluntary military service: difficulty recruiting soldiers, the overly high costs of maintaining troops, a decline in mobilization and battle capabilities, insufficient quality of soldiers, and difficulty establishing the idea that national defense is everyone’s responsibility. These are problems that the government must address.
Even Switzerland, a country that has maintained neutrality and is not the target of any foreign aggression, has adhered to conscription to cultivate a sense of responsibility among its citizens to fight their own battles.
Faced with the threat of China’s powerful military, can Taiwan really afford to insist on voluntary military service?
Chang Feng-lin is a university administrator based in Taichung.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS