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Summary: This book illustrates the controversial view
that children are not always passive victims,
but often make rational decisions that the one
thing worse than fighting is not fighting. It
establishes that culture and history shape the
experiences of children at war and the
conditions under which they fight.
Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism, By David M. Rosen
THE ONE THING WORSE THAN FIGHTING IS NOT FIGHTING!
NEW BOOK TAKES CONTROVERSIAL STANCE ON CHILD SOLDIER PROBLEM
Children have served as child soldiers throughout history, fighting in the
American Revolution, the Civil War, and in both World Wars. They served
as uniformed soldiers, camouflaged insurgents, and even suicide bombers.
The first U.S. soldier to be killed by hostile fire in the Afghanistan war was
shot in ambush by a fourteen-year-old boy!
Does this mean that child soldiers are aggressors? Or victims?
While these are difficult questions with no obvious answers, humanitarian
organizations and contemporary scholars often view child combatants as
hideous examples of adult criminal exploitation.
In his provocative book, Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and
Terrorism, anthropology and law professor David M. Rosen argues that this
response vastly oversimplifies the child soldier problem. Drawing on three
dramatic examples – from Sierra Leone, Palestine, and Jewish partisans of
Eastern Europe during the Holocaust – Rosen vividly illustrates the
controversial view that children are not always passive victims, but often
make rational decisions that the one thing worse than fighting is not
fighting. He establishes that culture and history shape the experiences of
children at war and the conditions under which they fight.
Topics explored by Rosen in Armies of the Young include:
- The political forces that shape the legal determination of who is a child
soldier;
- How children’s lives may be saved by their recruitment into the armed
forces; and
- The historical and cultural context by which children are recruited into the
armed forces.
With a critical eye to international law, Rosen urges readers to reconsider
the situation of child combatants in light of circumstance and history before
adopting uninformed child protectionist views. In the process, he paints a
memorable picture of the role of children in international conflicts.
David M. Rosen is a professor of anthropology and law at Fairleigh
Dickinson University, College of Florham, Madison, New Jersey. He received
his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
and his J.D. from Pace Law School and is a member of the Bar of the State
of New York. He has carried out field research in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and
Israel. His research interests are the connections between law and
culture. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
ARMIES OF THE YOUNG IS A VOLUME IN THE RUTGERS SERIES IN
CHILDHOOD STUDIES, EDITED BY MYRA BLUEBOND-LANGNER,
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, CAMDEN.
ARMIES OF THE YOUNG
Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism
By David M. Rosen
199 pages, 6 x 9
Paper, $22.95. ISBN: 0-8135-3568-9
Publication Date: April 2005