Conscription in the Arab Union

In the Union of Arab Republics (UAR; informally the Arab Union), the federal government has been mandating military conscription under martial law since the start of the Arab Winter (also known as the Arab Civil War) and related hostilities in 2011, which set off what has been variously described as today's largest civil war, innumerable acts of terror at the hands of extremist Islamist armed groups, and a highly complicated and often contradictory proxy war between the world's superpowers made to take place upon Arab soil. Since the war's official end in August 2019, the Minister of Defence announced on 22 September that, should the state of peace across the country continue, he would advice the President to lifting the conscription/draft and making the transition back to a fully professional military, which would be one of many automatic effects of the lifting of martial law.

As the Arab Union's government under President Assad began to fear for its hold on the union's political legitimacy, as more and more foreign extremist fighters, financed by Western countries, continued to poor into the country and gain in strength. The enactment of the draft was, according to a press release by President Assad, a necessary and urgent step in the defence of our multicultural, progressive and socialist society from the forces of local and regional extremists and the seemingly unlimited amount of mercenary forces under the pay of Western governments and interests as well as local and even internal enemies.

With the beginning of the intervention starting in 2015 by Iran and Russia, as well as the legitimisation of all pro-government militias as Arab Union National Guard, the tide has slowly but surly turned in favour of the Arab Union and its values of equality, progress and most of all, the right to be who one is and have what/who one wants; however, while having had its quotas significantly reduced, the draft remains in place; with the war officially ending in late 2019, the President announced the planned lifting of the draft in 2022, should no elements of the conflict find resurgence within Arab Union boundaries. Conscription is also used in Russia, which remains stationed in the Arab Union as a powerful military and economic ally.