Scott Gates, Simon Reich, eds. Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. x + 310 pp. $27.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-6029-4.

Reviewed by Aaron Hale (Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University)
Published on H-Human-Rights (January, 2011)
Commissioned by Rebecca K. Root (Ramapo College of New Jersey)

The Loss of Innocence in Troubled Times

Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States is an excellent addition to the emerging body of scholarship that focuses on the unfortunate and growing challenges surrounding child soldiers in some of the world’s most troubled and fragmented states.  Edited by Scott Gates (director for the Study of Civil War, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo, and professor of political science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Simon Reich (director of the Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University), the editors have assembled fifteen of some of the sharpest thinkers, both scholars and practitioners, on the challenges surrounding child soldiers.  This book is an impressive body of work that covers an array of conceptual, methodological, and practical concerns such that not only scholars, but also practitioners, in the subfields of human rights, conflict studies, and other social science fields will find something of import and value here. 

This volume specifically highlights the underexamined issue of child soldiers, and what the authors make clear is that this issue is more complex than simply a ten-year-old brandishing a gun in some far-off corner of the world.  By broadening the scope and focus on child soldiers, “the authors in this collection analyze the phenomenon of child soldiers, examine what has been done to address it, and explore what remedies exist, if any” (p. 3).  The book contains fourteen chapters plus a supplementary conclusion, and is very well organized into five readable parts. 

Part 1 lays out the introduction by the editors and reasons behind the book.  There is also a chapter by Henry Ames on the “Methodological Problems in the Study of Child Soldiers.”  This chapter succinctly details the difficulties facing scholars and practitioners who work on child soldier issues.  For example, Ames highlights the challenge of determining the proper unit of analysis.  Typically it is the state, but in the case of child soldiers it can be an individual orphan, or a group of refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs), or militias, families, or extended communities.  Selection bias, the centrality of time, as well as missing data are obvious methodological challenges for scholars of child studies and conflict that are also highlighted by Ames.

Part 2 addresses the ethical, legal, and international dimensions of child soldiers.  Jeff McMahan addresses ethical perspectives surrounding child soldiers by looking at responsibility and the moral status of child soldiers.  At what age is an individual treated as an adult for his or her actions?  McMahan’s article grapples with the ethical and legal dilemmas by concluding that there are no clear-cut guidelines.  Ultimately McMahan states that the international community may have to show mercy, or in his words just restraint, which may be required in an attempt to restore a child’s normalcy.  Tonderai W. Chikuhwa, in his article “The Evolution of the United Nations’ Protection Agenda for Children,” highlights the six relevant resolutions adopted by the United Nations since 1999.  Chikuhwa’s intent here is to highlight the importance of setting standards and international norms and the roles that advocacy organizations play in bringing attention to the child soldier phenomenon. 

Part 3 examines alternative explanations of child recruitment and the conditions that make recruitment possible.  P. W. Singer’s contribution focuses on the enabling factors behind child soldiers: social disruptions and failures of development in a globalizing world, the abundance of cheap small arms available to minors, and the changing nature of conflict where criminal networks can operate and survive in transnational fashion.  Vera Achvarina and Simon Reich highlight the practical challenges surrounding refugees and IDPs where displacement camps very often become recruiting grounds for at-risk children and youth.  The displaced become easy prey.  In separate chapters, Jo Becker and Francisco Gutierrez Sanin provide case studies on child recruitment in Burma, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, and organizing minors in Colombia.  Forced recruitment in Nepal and Sri Lanka is occurring due to established quota systems by armed opposition groups, while in Burma, Becker argues, child recruitment is at the hands of government forces.  Colombia on the other hand is a more complicated case due to the long and violent nature of the Colombian conflict.  Sanin notes that fewer than 20 percent of the child soldiers are forcefully recruited.  The majority of child soldiers are volunteers, and unlike in other violent conflicts, an estimated 20 to 30 percent are females.  Sanin further notes that due to the economic disparities throughout Colombia and the nature of the various armed groups, they offer several incentives for potential recruits to become armed combatants.

Part 4 looks at three empirical assessments of child soldiers, all of which are conflict and post-conflict cases on the African continent.  These chapters look at Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Angola.  Only the DRC is still considered a conflict setting, and Sarah Kenyon Lischer nicely traces the rise in the child soldier phenomenon since the late 1990s.  This chapter could further penetrate the child soldier phenomenon by drawing upon James B. Pugel’s chapter on Liberia in this volume, in which he interrogates the various armed groups during the Liberian civil war by looking at the causal factors and motivations behind the rising phenomenon. 

Part 5 nicely wraps up the volume by addressing relevant policy concerns and what can and should be done to stop the recruitment of child soldiers.  All the authors of part 5 are focused on addressing the underlying structural conditions that contribute to conflict and the rising child soldier phenomenon.  Increasing education for children, investing in local community projects, increasing child protective services, and providing psychosocial counseling to former, and potential, child soldiers can help to minimize the scourge of child soldiering.  All authors agree that finding durable solutions to the phenomenon is no easy task, especially in light of the weakness of many of the world’s most fractured states.  However, if children are to live their lives free of forced armed violence, there must be more of a concerted effort to produce comprehensive policy prescriptions that tackle not only the phenomenon, but also the root causes that make child soldiering an unfortunate and emerging challenge in today’s troubled times.

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Citation: Aaron Hale. Review of Gates, Scott; Reich, Simon, eds., Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States. H-Human-Rights, H-Net Reviews. January, 2011.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30263

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