Russ Roberts: belief

Transcript context

…Given the rising importance of cyber warfare, it seems, for Israel most of all, should Israel still have a draft? Isn’t the future of Israeli security, drones, cyber defense, cyberattacks, other advanced weapons — it’s a tech story rather than a personnel story. Yes, no? You’d think so. That may be partly what’s driving having a conversation about our volunteer army. Israel doesn’t have the personnel needs that it had for an army, that it would have had 20 years ago. There are a lot of units here where people in them can’t tell you what they’re in because they’re, I think, highly classified, highly involved in those kinds of cybersecurity issues. I think it’s a big issue for the world. It’s going to be an incredible thing to see how this changes warfare in general. But it’s a key part of Israel’s arsenal, obviously. They’ve been very successful in using cyberattacks to slow down Iran’s nuclear program, for example, because that’s the received wisdom. Will the Israeli military, plus conscription, still over time produce that sense of social solidarity if the military personnel themselves are not in the long run responsible for national security? Won’t it become a Straussian façade and at some point fade away or be viewed cynically or not serve its original socially unifying function?…

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