- Enemy nations will be somewhat less motivated to invade if they know they will be facing a population that is entirely armed and ready to resist.
- Putting the population into the service of the country helps build a sense of national cohesion by giving a shared sense of mission and duty.
- Training the citizens to fight could also be a tool to help prevent dictatorships where the military persecutes the people; a military of citizen-soldiers would be less likely to see their own people as a "them" and more as an "us."
I work with some people in Armenia (which has mandatory conscription) - and from what I've observed that military service made the Us v. Them between Armenians and Azerbaijani stronger than perhaps it would have been without said military service (a drunken encounter between one of said Armenians and an Azerbaijani person outside of Armenia literally came to blows for no real reason I could observe except Us v. Them (well, and alcohol)).
Oh, that is fascinating! I had never heard of anything like that, and that actually sounds like a wonderful idea. Especially for areas where there are underserved regions (rural areas that might not have a high enough population to support a fire department or police or something like that) that could be supported by conscripted people. And unlike with military training, the training would leave participants both with a willingness to help their neighbors and skills to do so. I'm going to have to read up more about nations which do mandatory civil service rather than just military.
