How EU accession has affected military service in post-conflict Cyprus

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the concept of military service develops in the post-conflict society of Cyprus (RoC), following its accession to the European Union (EU). It is based on an exhaustive series of individual interviews with soldiers, lawyers, politicians, ambassadors and civilians, as well as an analysis of media content. The article sets out exactly how EU accession presented a confusing ideological trajectory for the army, lowering motivation for defending the border against occupying forces. The diminishing value of military service takes place against a background of changing masculine ideals. Moreover, defence diplomacy aiming to create energy alliances between EU member states against Turkey had the unintended consequence of young men further disassociating from direct involvement in the defence project. The article also analyses a number of policies developed to deal with conscription issues. Through the case study of Cyprus, we come to see how policy on military service during the EU accession process should incorporate changing civil-military relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Conscription
• military service
• European Union
• policy
• post-conflict
• masculinity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 These are Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, and Sweden. While Norway is not an EU member, it is a Nordic European country an it should be noted that it also maintains military service, which since 2013 also applies to females, and is of pertinent significance to the efforts to expand its territorial presence (Kosnik 2017).

2 In popular GC discourse, the term 'mothers of the missing persons' (in Greek: οι Μανϵς των αγνοουμϵνων) is used to refer to the mothers, sisters and wives of the missing persons, and this is the way in which I am also using the term.

3 Due to the dispute, Northern Cyprus is de jure part of the EU in de jure being part of the Republic of Cyprus.

4 The opening of crossing points on the border took place a week after RoC signed the Accession Treaty on 16 April 2003 about a year before the accession.

5 At present, of the 27 member states of the EU, only 6 have a form of military service. Cyprus, even after the policy changes of 2015 has the Cyprus has the longest service time in the EU. Of the 28 countries of NATO, only 5 maintain some form of military service.