Contents

1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 72

2 Two Decades of Child Soldier Advocacy.....................................................................................

3 Opportunities in Research and Representation............................................................................. 77

4 The “Voice” of the Child Soldier?.................................................................................................. 79

5 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 84

References.............................................................................................................................................. 85

Abstract

This article looks at how research on child soldiers has been undertaken, espe­cially during the 2000s which marked a time of significant humanitarian interest and intervention by NGOs especially in West Africa. It is argued here that despite inroads into children’s rights and new understandings about children’s agency, these research relationships illustrate a largely asymmetrical dynamic, in which short term gains by individual children diminish the return for the majority and in effect help further victimise or disempower children affected by armed conflict. Furthermore, ‘drive by’ interventions which source primary narratives of children often fail to take into account the complexity of their childhood and the manoeu­vres that they may be performing in order to survive.

Keywords

African Union (AU) • Armed forces • Autobiography • Backwardness • Benin home • Child soldiers • Actor-oriented approach • Advocacy • Central characters •

H. Brocklehurst

College of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Derby, Swansea, UK

K. Peters (*)

Department of Political and Cultural Studies, Swansea University, Swansea, UK e-mail: k.peters@swansea.ac.uk

© Crown Copyright 2017

C. Harker et al. (eds.), Conflict, Violence and Peace, Geographies of Children and Young People 11, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-038-4_4

Demobilization • Disembodiment of narratives • In Africa • Machel report • Narratives of • Phenomenon • Plot lines • Primary narratives • Protecting chil­dren • Reintegration of • Representation • Research opportunities • Social net­works • Sound bites • Victimcy • Cold War • International agenda • Cold War proxy • Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) • Interim care centers (ICCs) • New England Ville • New wars • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

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