These countries, and many more not mentioned here, have mandatory military service. I asked my Taiwanese friend James, a computer engineer specializing in sound chips, about his two years in the army. What did he do? Shot guns, ran around, he said. Was he stationed in any other countries? No, he said, just Taiwan.

In Taiwan, males age 18-36 must serve 16 months either in active duty or a correlated public safety/community service position. Service usually begins at 19, but can be detterred by pursuing education, but not avoided. As the voluntarily-enlisted army increases, the months required by all males is expected to decrease.