Professionalizing the Estonian reserve component

Abstract

As new democracies such as the Republic of Estonia decide how to structure their military forces for the future, they will need to determine the mix of two different force components: standing active-duty forces, and reserve forces composed of citizen-soldiers. This thesis argues that reliance on reserves can offer significant advantages over standing forces, depending on a nation's external security requirements and domestic economic constraints. In particular, citizen-soldier reserves can allow nations that do not face immediate external threats, such as Estonia, to meet their security requirements for less money than required by standing forces. Citizen-soldier reserves are also less likely to pose a domestic threat to democratic civilian control. Both issues are of special concern to nations such as Estonia, where the process of democratic consolidation is still underway, and little funding is available for defense.