This year’s Class of 2006 War Studies Conference focused explicitly and exclusively on the contemporary Army recruitment crisis. The problem is not only ensuring the Army recruits the quantity of soldiers it needs, but also that it attracts individuals with the right skillset to succeed on the increasingly complex modern battlefield. Furthermore, it is important to tackle these problems within the context of today’s political realities, including American security commitments, force posture, and the maintenance of an All-Volunteer Force.

To solve this problem, policymakers must be willing to think creatively and question assumptions. Despite laudable progress on making military service more equitable and accessible to diverse groups, the Army continues to look to the same populations for recruitment efforts. These traditional conceptions of military service and servicemembers do not necessarily reflect the realities of modern society or modern warfare. We need to rethink what aspects of our current military recruitment practices are necessary to ensure an effective force, and what aspects might be hindering progress.

This conference brought together leading experts in military recruitment from scholarly and practitioner communities who are working to improve the Army’s ability to attract and retain from a broader, more diverse group across our highly skilled, highly motivated population of young Americans. It had the following goals:

  1. Foster a broad, research- and practice-informed community of interest through shared information and expertise.
  2. Generate a research agenda with specific, Accessions Enterprise-driven questions about how to increase propensity and eligibility for military service.
  3. Produce a report or white paper with a summary of what we know about the recruitment crisis and specific recommendations that will help address it.
    In pursuit of these goals, the conference will operate as an intimate workshop setting for scholars and practitioners to reach consensus about the most important and most feasible policy changes for improving American military recruitment. It will be a closed group, with limited invitations, to ensure the conversation remains on topic and focused within the appropriate parameters. Each session will begin with a few minutes of prepared comments from experts to define the current problem their topic address and set the stage for a productive plenary discussion about appropriate solutions.