Chapter 1: Introduction

In the first half of the twentieth century, the two world wars sent millions of soldiers into battle. Since the Cold War, military action has increasingly involved deployment of professional soldiers to regional conflicts in either peacekeeping (PK) missions or peace-enforcing (PE) missions – that is, soldiers fighting in a ‘distant’ war. Millions of men and women have been deployed to such missions and have returned with experiences that may greatly affect their lives and the lives of their families, in both the short and the long run.

The experiences of the Danish Armed Forces, who participate in more and more international deployments, provide an excellent case study for the transformation of the military – from mass armies built on conscription during the Cold War to much smaller professional units that can be deployed to international missions. Gilroy and Williams (2006) provide a general introduction to and description of the shift towards all-volunteer forces (AVFs) in Europe. In Denmark, the military situation changed from being a ‘front-line’ situation during the Cold War to a situation characterised by the ambition to participate in international missions with allied forces (Heurlin, 2006). The timing of this change coincides precisely with the period of the data used for the analyses in this book (1992–2009). Denmark also constitutes an exception to the international trend towards AVFs, as it has kept conscription (Heurlin, 2006). While only a small share of a cohort has to serve in the military, this group of conscripts is a pool of potential recruitment to the group of voluntary professional soldiers.