Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 14 No. 2 (2004) ISSN: 1546-2250 Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight Brett, Rachel and Specht, Irma (2004). Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers; 175 pages. $17.95. ISBN 1588262618. Research on armed conflict and forced migration is sorely amiss when it comes to children and adolescents. Very little of the anthropological or sociological literature on war considers the young. In psychological studies they have been largely absorbed into a generic category of victim, masking their perspectives and the reality of their lives. Such omissions have impoverished academic knowledge and insight as well as having an adverse effect on humanitarian policy and practice, which is often reliant on assumption, stereotype and conjecture rather than sound empirical evidence. Young people are not merely civilians in, or victims of, war; indeed, they make up a sizeable proportion of the world’s armed combatants globally and an even larger number of the ancillary forces, in some cases constituting the majority. Research tracking their experiences and views is vital for the effort to better understand and respond to the phenomenon of child and adolescent soldiering. This book by Rachel Brett and Irma Specht makes a significant contribution to the field. Based on in-depth interviews with 53children in ten countries and finding many commonalities and parallels across these distinct situations, it sets out to identify the risk factors leading to young people’s voluntary recruitment to combat from the standpoint of the volunteers themselves. Building on their own words, the volume explores the motives and decisions underlying the participation of the young in armed conflict, and describes their experiences during combat. It analyzes the broad environmental factors, personal histories and more immediate circumstances that inform their decisions. The mere fact of war and the enlistment opportunities it provides, peer influence, family abuse, and 340 exclusion from education are all found to play a part, but poverty is established as the single most commonly identifiable factor influencing children and adolescents to become soldiers. Important gender distinctions emerge in the study. Seven of those interviewed were girls and the book highlights the specificities of their circumstances and how their motives both resemble and differ from boys’. Domestic violence or oppression in the home figured prominently as a prime or sole motive underlying girls’ recruitment. On the other hand, girls tend to experience less pressure to enlist as a means of protecting or providing for the family than do boys. Special attention is given to the particular risks for adolescents, who are often more prone to recruitment than younger age groups. The task Brett and Specht set out for themselves is not an easy one, for the topic of child recruitment is very emotive and difficult on many fronts and addressing it requires considerable compassion and sensitivity. There are also many practical problems associated with the conduct of comparative and qualitative research of this nature. It is evident that a lot of attention was given to planning and executing the study and a great deal of thought and care taken in reporting the findings. Written in a highly accessible style, well-presented and supported by photographs and appendices, the intention behind the volume is to inform policy and practice, with a view to improving support and protection for young soldiers and facilitating their socioeconomic reintegration following demobilization. To this end, a number of specific recommendations are made in relation to a range of different sectors, especially employment and education, which are crucial as alternatives to the recruitment of the young. Effort has been made to achieve regional balance and to include case study countries like the United Kingdom and Congo-Brazzaville that have been little reported on to date. The sample is very small and the geographic coverage broad, leading the authors— very appropriately— to stress that they do not claim their respondents to be representative of the child and adolescent soldiers of the world. As well, for ethical reasons a 341 conscious decision was taken to exclude detailed information about the specific contexts that the children come from. While this decision is fitting in that it respects the right to anonymity and privacy of respondents, it does detract from the...