Authorities in the Netherlands say recrutiment of army reservists has seen a significant boost, particularly after the recent enlistment by the country’s queen and her eldest daughter, with authorities now scrambling to arm and train new recruits.
In February, photos of Queen Maxima in training and aiming a pistol on a shooting range were published around the world.
That royal seal of approval, together with recruitment campaigns running across the media, has proven so successful that the military is now working overtime to arm, train and accommodate the influx of newcomers.
At the Defence Ministry, it’s known as “the Amalia effect,” namechecking heir apparent Princess Catharina-Amalia.
“We have more applications than we can handle,” says State Secretary for Defence Derk Boswijk.
“We have a lack of training capacity, a lack housing, you have to give them all uniforms, you have give them weapons, you have the give them the training, you need space to train, so that are the difficulties at the moment, but it’s a luxury problem, I say, because we are really working hard on it, to fix all these problems.”
According to Boswijk, there are about 9,000 reservists in the Netherlands, and recruiters aim to have at least 20,000 in 2030.
It comes as part of plans by the Dutch government to raise the number of military personnel from its current level of 80,000 to 120,000 by 2035, a plan that has broad political support.
A move to modernise Europe’s militaries
The recruitment drive reflects moves across Europe to expand and modernise militaries as leaders warily eye the grinding war launched by Russia against Ukraine and the recent disenchantment expressed by US President Donald Trump with the NATO alliance.
A corporal in the reserve battalion of the 10th Infantry Battalion Guard Security Corps National Reserve on a weekend exercise said she’s seen a shift in priorities as the global security outlook has gotten more volatile and less predictable.
“When I first joined, there was almost no risk or almost no threat…and now it’s changing so we are more aware of it,” she said.
That has meant a mindset shift toward “more what we call green things, infantry things.”
She added: “We are here to defend our country and to make sure to keep the threat down.”
With her face and that of her colleagues daubed with camouflage, the troops emerge almost silently from a forest with Colt C7 rifles slung across their chests. They scan their surroundings for potential threats, something European Union and NATO officials deem as very real today.
With the war in Ukraine being the deadliest on the continent since World War II, new NATO plans now aim at countering potential aggressor threat and require allies to prepare their armies for big battles, focused on more mobile forces that can be quickly deployed.
The Netherlands never fully abolished its draft, but call-ups have been suspended since 1997 and there are no immediate plans to reintroduce them.
Reservists in the Netherlands commit to 300 hours of service each year, including regular weekend exercises.
While traditionally they are deployed to secure and guard domestic sites and are not sent to combat missions overseas, they also can be used in national emergencies, such as piling up sandbags in cases of severe flooding.
Other countries boost recruitment
German lawmakers are considering a government plan to offers better pay and conditions for people who join up on a short-term basis, along with better training and more flexibility on how long recruits must serve.
The aim is to draw sufficient recruits without reviving conscription that was suspended for men in 2011. The plan leaves the door open for limited compulsory recruitment if not enough people volunteer.
Like the Netherlands, France is leaning into voluntary service to boost the military. A programme starting in September seeks to recruit 3,000 volunteers aged 18-25.
They will serve in uniform for 10 months on France’s mainland and overseas territories only. The plan seeks to attract up to 50,000 volunteers per year by 2035.
In northern and eastern Europe, where the threat from Russia is felt most keenly, some nations still have some conscription.
Finland has a draft for all males and a voluntary system for women. Sweden reinstated a gender-neutral partial military service in 2017. If not enough people volunteer, a lottery is held to select people for the remaining slots.
Neighboring Denmark has a similar system, as does Latvia since it revived its draft in 2023 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.