SSI Live Podcast – Ep 124 – The Selective Service System

In this episode of SSI Live, Major Brennan Deveraux interviews Dr. Michael Lynch on his involvement with the Selective Service System. The conversation explores the history of the military draft and the contemporary challenges of implementing a modern-day draft to support a large-scale war.

John Deni

Hello and welcome to SSI Live. You’ve long known the Strategic Studies Institute, or SSI, at the US Army War College, as the go-to location for issues related to national security and military strategy, with an emphasis on geostrategic analysis. SSI conducts strategic research and analysis to support the US Army War College curricula; assist and inform Army, DoD, and US government leadership; and serve as a bridge to the wider strategic community. Now, we are bringing you access to SSI analyses, scholars, and guests, through this, the SSI Live podcast series. Thanks for joining us.

Brennan Deveraux

Welcome back to SSI Live. I’m your host, Major Brennan Deveraux. Still waiting on John Deni and his awesome book that’s going to come out of that sabbatical. I’m joined today by Dr. Mike Lynch. He’s a national security research professor with me over at the Strategic Studies Institute. Mike covers a myriad of topics in his research, from homeland defense to force structure and mobilization. He retired from the US Army in 2005 and subsequently earned his PhD in history at Temple University.

For this conversation, we’re going to be exploring the Army War College’s relationship with the Selective Service System and Mike’s role as the liaison to this often-overlooked organization. Mike, before we jump into the Selective Service System, can you just talk to me a little bit about your background and how that helped you land this unique role of working with the Selective Service System?

Mike Lynch

Sure, Brennan, and thanks for the opportunity to do this. I started researching mobilization when I arrived here as a civilian in 2005. But it actually goes back before that. My interest goes back before that. In 2002, while I was still on active duty, I was fortunate enough to attend a conference sponsored by the US Army War College. I was not at the War College at the time.

But it was in Paris. And it brought together the armies of the United States. Great Britain, France, and Germany. And the purpose of that was to help Germany figure out how to end conscription. It’s interesting that Germany is now thinking about restarting conscription, but from that it gave me an interest in in mobilization generally in conscription specifically.

Deveraux

Okay. So, you had a, a couple of opportunities. You started looking at mobilization when you got here as a civilian research professor, historian. Talk to me about how you then kind of stumbled your way into working specifically with the Selective Service System.

Lynch