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14.01.2026. 10:55h
The new year brings an old challenge in a new guise for young men in Croatia. In the first days of 2026, around 1.200 of them will receive letters informing them that they have been called up for military service.
This is the first generation to face conscription since it was abolished in 2008, a year before Croatia joined NATO. The idea at the time was to professionalize the armed forces and move away from mandatory military service.
Now, especially when you consider that Croatia is physically separated from Ukraine only by Hungary, the prospect of armed conflict seems uncomfortably close. A stray drone, probably Ukrainian but never officially identified, crashed in Zagreb in 2022. It did not cause any major damage, but it certainly prompted serious reflection.
The Croatian government has become uncomfortably aware that it can count on fewer than 15.000 active-duty military personnel. Ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, it proposed reintroducing mandatory military service for young men after high school. Defense Minister Ivan Anušić said it would help young men break “bad habits” and prepare for “any major threat.” Opinion polls have shown broad support for the idea—seven out of ten Croatians support it. After the election, the HDZ is now putting the policy into practice.
Political support and lack of resistance
The necessary laws passed through parliament without difficulty last October, with 84 MPs voting in favor and only 11 against. The Ministry of Defense wasted no time in contacting the first group of conscripts. All of this went without major protests – unlike in Germany, where young people protested against the introduction of conscription.
“I don’t see any challenges with recruitment,” says Gordan Akrap, vice-chancellor of the Franjo Tuđman University of Defence and Security. “There will be more people who want to be part of this project than can be accommodated at the moment, because the number is limited,” he adds. “Some populist groups on the far left say that we should invest in kindergartens and the like, but the fact is that someone has to protect those kindergartens and our European way of life and democracy – and that can ultimately only be ensured by the army.”
Regional trend of recruitment return
The reintroduction of compulsory military service in Croatia is part of a broader trend in countries that were once part of Yugoslavia, with several considering returning to some form of conscription.
In the former Yugoslavia, young men were required to serve a year in the Yugoslav People’s Army, which created a substantial fighting force. Just before the country began to disintegrate in the 1990s, two-thirds of the ground forces were conscripts – with an additional million reservists.
The independent states that emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia gradually abolished compulsory military service. Slovenia was the first to abolish conscription in 2003, while the last conscripts in Serbia completed their service in 2010. With the promise – or in the case of Slovenia and Croatia, the realization – of membership in the European Union, there seemed little need for the kind of army that included months of military training for young people.
But even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mood was beginning to change. The parties that formed a new right-wing nationalist government in Slovenia in 2020 included the reintroduction of conscription in their coalition agreement. Then-Prime Minister Janez Janša distinguished himself as defense minister during Slovenia’s 10-day war of independence in 1991.
He claimed that the country’s armed forces – with only 7.000 members – were no longer capable of defending the country from attack and complained that young people did not know how to handle weapons. The current government has not accepted the idea, but parliamentary elections are scheduled for March, and Janša’s party, the SDS, is leading in the polls.
In Serbia, the government has been talking about the possibility of introducing conscription for years. Several deadlines have passed without conscripts being called up, but that could change this year, as Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić claims that a legislative proposal will soon be submitted to parliament.
Stability of the Balkans and a look into the future
As countries in the region increase their military spending and seek to increase their military personnel, the old question is being asked again: Should the rest of Europe be worried about the Balkans? But Toby Fogel of the Berlin-based think tank Council for Democratization Policy believes the potential for actual conflict remains low. “The military aspect of all this is primarily about readiness – not about concrete planning, and certainly not about offensive planning,” he says. “Serbia is not preparing to attack Croatia, nor is Croatia preparing to attack Serbia,” he adds.
“In a situation where the general environment is marked by instability and unpredictability, I think governments are probably prudent to take certain precautions and lay the groundwork for a more strategic approach to international relations. But that’s a throwback to the old days.”
New Croatian recruits will soon discover how much their experience will resemble the stories they heard from their fathers and grandfathers. Some may even feel relieved to learn that their term of service is shorter – just two months.
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