Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight

by Rachel Brett

They are part of rebel factions, national armies, paramilitaries, and other armed groups and entrenched in some of the most violent conflicts around the globe. They are in some ways still children - yet, from Afghanistan to Sierra Leone to Northern Ireland, you can find them among the fighters. Why? Young Soldiers explores the reasons that adolescents who are neither physically forced nor abducted choose to join armed groups. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the soldiers themselves, the authors challenge conventional wisdom to offer a thought-provoking account of the role that war, poverty, education, politics, identity, family, and friends all play in driving these young men and women to join military life. They also address the important issues of demobilization and the reintegration process. International in scope, covering a variety of situations in Afghanistan, Columbia, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom, Young Soldiers concludes with a discussion of the steps needed to create an environment in which adolescents are no longer forced to volunteer.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The existence of child soldiers is a problematic item in the global community especially in the western public opinion. The idea of children to be abducted and forced to fight and kill is a truly horrifying concept and a significant amount of research, aid and time has been spent on prevention of child soldiers, punishment of those that use them and rehabilitation of the child soldiers into normal life. Brecht Specht in his book Young Soldiers, why they choose to fight, does not question the need to internationally condemn the use of child soldiers or the need to rehabilitate them. He does however question the neglect of another vulnerable but significant portion of soldiers in many current conflicts: adolescents. This demographic group, teens, aged 12 to 18 both boys and girls are in his opinion neglected because they do not fit in the narrative of helpless children forced to fight after abduction. These are young people who due to a number of interacting push and pull factors such as education (lack off or not!), family (positive and negative role), ideology, gender and so on ended up volunteering to join an army, militia or rebel group in a conflict situation. If they and the factors that caused their participation are not given the needed attention and positive help, it poses a significant threat to a successful rehabilitation in a post conflict society according to Specht. For instance Specht remarks that if one of the mayor factors in conflict participation was an abusive family member, than the classic approach to help former child soldiers, by reuniting them with family is not a good idea nor is emphasizing education as recruitment prevention when the armed forces use schools as ideological training and recruitment centers.


This is an important book for anyone with an interest in war, social disruption, adolescents psychology and Internationale aid should read especially in the current global situation where youngsters increasingly are involved in conflicts beyond their immediate surroundings exemplified in the recruitment of ISIS and Kurdish militants in the west to fight in the middle east. Specht spends an astonishing 40 of 187 pages on methodology not just explaining how he did the research but concrete advice on how to emulate his style. That’s not surprising since he hopes other researchers and aid workers would follow his lead. What makes this book so valuable is the very successful combination of broader context, abstract concepts, theory and individual cases. Throughout the book relevant fragments of dozens of former child soldiers(ranging from south America, Europe, central and western Africa, central Asia and the east Asian regions) are used as examples and how personal individual histories influence events and shape the real life experience of an abstract concept such as war or poverty. The point being to make clear that broad theoretical universal approaches to conflict, peace and rehabilitation are relevant but these should not mean the loss of the individual and his/her personal story. Listen to the people who experienced it and understand why they did so as to truly help them and prevent others to have a similar fate, that is the message of the book and it’s an important one indeed.



On a side note Specht made the comparison between motivations for soldiers to fight in the thirty years war (1618-1648) and current motivations for joining armed forces today. Some might find this irrelevant but perhaps looking at historical socially and politically disruptive conflicts and their social and political impacts on individuals might help to better understand complex political and social conflicts today. A small reflection by Specht but perhaps as relevant as the rest of the book.

[Chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vivid stories about the real life of young soldiers in war. Carefully explained causal factors of their choice.