Men aged 18 to 25 in the U.S. will automatically be included in the Selective Service list as early as December this year. The self-reporting method, which has been maintained for more than half a century, will be abolished, and the federal government will directly register using existing databases. As the move comes amid a prolonged war in Iran, concerns over the revival of the conscription system are spreading. According to the BBC, the U.S. Bureau of Military Registration (SSS) submitted a rule plan for the implementation of automatic registration to the Office of Information and Regulation (OIRA) on the 30th of last month. The proposal is currently under consideration and will take effect from December upon approval. SSS explained on its website that the change will “transfer the registration responsibility of individual men to SSS,” and that it will simplify the process through integration with other federal data sources.
Under current law, men aged 18-25 in the United States must register for military service within 30 days after their 18th birthday. Failure to register will result in federal student aid and hiring public officials, and non-citizens may be denied U.S. citizenship. Theoretically, they could face up to five years in prison, but few cases have been actually imprisoned.
The move is included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2026, signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in December last year, and is interpreted as a result of a decrease in voluntary registration. Although the majority of U.S. states automatically register for military service when issuing driver’s licenses, the registration rate has fallen to 81 percent as of 2024.
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania), who proposed the provision, told the Military Times at the time, “Automatic registration allows us to redistribute resources. Basically, this means money. Instead of education and advertising campaigns to register people, we can put them into readiness and mobilization capabilities.” Women are not eligible for registration.
However, the BBC added that the automatic registration system is a change in administrative procedures based on laws approved by Congress and is separate from the revival of the conscription system. To implement a conscription, Congress must pass a separate law and cannot implement it independently by the president. The last conscription in the United States was the Vietnam War in 1973, and about 1.8 million people were conscripted at that time. Since then, it has been converted to a conscription system, and in 1980, former President Jimmy Carter revived only the military service registration system and has been maintained until now.
However, as the news spreads at the height of the war in Iran, concerns are spreading among some Americans about the resurgence of the conscription system. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt responded in a Fox News interview in March to a question about the possibility of conscription and whether Iran’s ground forces would be deployed, saying, “It’s not included in the current plan, but the president is wisely putting all options on the table.” She then stressed, “The president has no greater priority and responsibility than protecting the American people and protecting military personnel.”
War conscription was carried out six times in the history of the United States. These included the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, which sparked massive anti-war public opinion during the Vietnam War and led to the transition to the recruitment system.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
