Comparative Study of Child Soldiering on Myanmar–China Border

Abstract

Although the persistent and widespread use of child soldiers by the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw Kyi) and ethnic minority militia makes this an important country study, the very conditions of authoritarian control that have protracted the conflicts have also hindered scholars from gaining access to zones of conflict. In his book,Comparative Study of Child Soldiering on Myanmar-China Border: Evolutions, Challenges and Countermeasures, Kai Chen compiles an extensive collection of reports and studies conducted within Myanmar for his analysis that will be welcome to scholars interested in the complexities influencing child soldiering in modern conflicts generally and Myanmar particularly. He also provides an excellent overview of the scholarly debates and tensions regarding the definition of a child soldier as well as the use of the age of 18 years to demarcate the end of childhood within international accords. Overall, however, the book may be somewhat ambitious in its proposed scope. Chen states that the purpose of his book is fourfold: (1) to compare the situation of child soldiers on the Myanmar–China border along several dimensions, including across time and between different regions and actors; (2) to address the structural factors influencing child soldiering; (3) to introduce what Chen refers to as Ba new approach of ‘limited statehood’ into the studies of child soldiering^ (p. 6), which is the basis for his premise that there is no optimal solution to governing child soldiering on the Myanmar–China border; and consequently (4) propose the use of transnational Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as the next best alternative. Chen draws from the work of Schaferhoff et al. (2009) who define PPPs as Bcontinuous and relatively institutionalized trans-boundary interactions between public and private actors that formally strive for the provision of collective goods, whereas private actors can be for-profit and/or civil society organizations (p. 12).^ Chen asserts that Ba proper transnational PPP should be characterized by the following elements: first, non-hierarchical relationships among all and only relevant partners (e.g., civil society organizations, international NGOs, local NGOs and transnational corporations); second, priority given to disadvantaged groups; third, risk allocation between the public and private sectors; fourth, trust building Asian Criminology (2015) 10:303–305 DOI 10.1007/s11417-015-9213-2