Editing Army (section)

===Late modern===
[[File:Operation Crusader.jpg|thumb|British Indian Army personnel during [[Operation Crusader]] in Egypt, 1941]]

[[Conscription]] allowed the [[French First Republic|French Republic]] to form the ''[[Grande Armée]]'', what [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]] called "the nation in arms", which successfully battled European professional armies.

Conscription, particularly when the conscripts are being sent to foreign wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, has historically been highly politically contentious in democracies.

In developed nations, the increasing emphasis on technological firepower and better-trained fighting forces, make mass conscription unlikely in the foreseeable future.

Russia, as well as many other nations, retains mainly a conscript army. There is also a very rare ''citizen army'' as used in Switzerland (see [[Military of Switzerland]]).