Apps at war: army+, reserve+ and the rise of digital defence governance in Ukraine

Ukraine’s Army+ and Reserve+ applications show how digital tools can transform mobilisation and military administration by re-engineering core governance processes, not simply adding apps on top of bureaucracy. By achieving a high degree of digital defence governance, Ukraine is reshaping the structural conditions under which it can sustain its defence effort – from how it mobilises people to how it supports serving personnel – and, in doing so, expanding what is politically and administratively possible in a long war. Army+ and Reserve+ are central to an adaptive governance approach that seeks to sustain a protracted war under democratic constraints, using digital channels to make mass military service more rule-bound, transparent, and legible to citizens and servicemembers, while constraining arbitrary bureaucratic discretion. Ukraine’s democratic allies should study its model to identify elements that could be adapted within their own national contexts.