Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary.

The last possibilities for peaceful resolution at the onset of World War I were lost at least in part because the belligerent nations' leaders believed that, once mobilized, their large and unwieldy armies could not be successfully demobilized without a dangerous loss of momentum which could prove fatal if negotiations were to fall through or if another nation reneged upon the agreement. The elaborate invasion plans, in particular the Schlieffen Plan of Germany, were almost impossible to halt once set into motion.

In the final days of World War II, the United States armed forces developed a demobilization plan which would discharge soldiers on the basis of a point system which allocated points according to length and type of service.