Amy Rutenberg – The Conversation

Draftees are sworn into the U.S. Army in 1940. AP Photo

June 7, 2021

Congress considers future of the military draft, while Supreme Court holds off

Max Margulies, United States Military Academy West Point and Amy Rutenberg, Iowa State University

Questions include whether women should be compelled to register, as men are, and whether the draft and draft registration should exist at all.

Teenage recruits at the experimental Universal Military Training camp at Fort Knox in 1947. Keystone Features/Getty Images

March 24, 2020

Should Congress demand America’s youth give a year of service to their country?

Amy Rutenberg, Iowa State University

A commission looking at the future of service is set to makesits recommendations. It is hoping to make a year of service ‘a norm’ for all Americans. What does it mean to serve?

A large group of American male Reserve Officers Training Corps students gather to protest the U.S. draft in the late 1930s. Anthony Potter Collection/Getty Images

January 14, 2020

Worrying about being drafted doesn’t mean you’re disloyal – it’s an old American tradition

Amy Rutenberg, Iowa State University

An Iranian general’s killing sparked fears of war and a draft in the US. Those are old fears, says a scholar who contends it’s a myth that during the two world wars, men signed up in droves to fight.

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