Ask what your gym can do for your country

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Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and advises Gallus Technologies

“It’s exhausting to look at fat troops,” Pete Hegseth told America’s generals gathered at a meeting in Virginia last week. Fortunately for the US Secretary of War, he may not have to exhaust himself. Generation Z, which makes up an increasingly significant proportion of the world’s militaries, is known for its devotion to health and fitness. This can be a good thing, not only on a personal level, but as an opportunity to learn about how the military and government think about protecting the community.

Long before Hegseth’s comments, Western military recruiters were concerned that the lifestyle of younger generations was becoming too sedentary for even light military tasks. Moreover, at a time of increasing security issues, lower birth rates mean fewer young people, and thus a smaller base from which the armed forces can recruit.

Now it appears that Generation Z is solving part of the problem on its own. According to A Last scan In Europe, North America and Asia, 36 percent of this generation exercise regularly, and 50 percent of them want to start doing so. They also seem keen to serve their countries; The number of applicants for voluntary military service in Germany increased by 15 percent compared to last year. The Finnish Reserve Soldiers’ Association gained about 4,000 new members this year.

Some of this stems from a desire to find community. As Robert Putnam has documented, we no longer come together as much as we used to. We also don’t join other clubs, and we certainly don’t participate in worship as frequently as previous generations did. As a result, 7% of people in England and 13% of people in the European Union report feeling lonely most or all of the time. Among people aged 16 to 24 years, this number is higher.

At the same time, our societies are grappling with another undeniable trend: insecurity. In the past few weeks, there have been Russian drone strikes in Poland and Romania, Russian MiGs violating Estonian airspace, and drone disturbances at Danish and German airports. This means that both military and government officials have to think more seriously about how members of society might help protect their countries.

Gen Z gym rats won’t voluntarily create auxiliary units to protect the homeland, nor do we want them to. Instead, governments should seize the unexpected opportunity and launch – or expand – these civil defense groups.

During the Cold War, Sweden ran national associations of radio operators, dog trainers, truck drivers, paratroopers, and many others – all to support the armed forces. Belonging to an association was like belonging to a bowling club, but with a purpose. Volunteer defense was a national movement at the time, and now it is thriving again. These associations still exist and grow. In the first months after the Russian invasion, the associations received as many new members as during a normal year.

Although they support the armed forces, volunteer defense organizations have nothing to do with weapons. Instead, they specialize in fields ranging from radio operations to truck driving to dog training. Today, about 380,000 Swedes are active in such organizations, doing work that would otherwise be done by the armed forces. While some other countries have internal guards and a few volunteer groups (which these days include an Estonian cyber unit and a new Lithuanian plan to train 22,000 people to operate drones), no other country has been able to match Sweden.

Other countries should follow suit. The Protection Corps could train regularly, then deploy to support hospitals or help disable suspicious drones. During the pandemic, around 330,000 participants in the Duke of Edinburgh’s scheme in the UK have spent 1.8 million hours volunteering. If governments collaborate with civil society to create similar new opportunities, many Generation Z members – who are eager to find community and protect their homelands – will likely heed this call.