The militarization of childhood

"In its various manifestations, the campaign to end child soldiering has brought graphic images of militarized children to popular consciousness. In the main, this has been a campaign that has seemed to speak to African contexts without as much reflection on the myriad ways in which the lives of children are militarized in advanced (post)industrial societies. Proceeding from this quite striking omission, the contributors to this volume move beyond the usual focus on the global South. Making what will be an important contribution to a much needed critical turn in the vast and still rapidly growing child soldier literature, they address multifarious ways in which childhood is militarized beyond the global South through enactments of militarism that have drawn much less in the way of critical inquiry"-- "Thinking beyond the global South and recognizing that militarism circulates and interpenetrates childhood experience in ways that are much less conspicuous than child soldiering raises questions of critical relevance to but not yet taken up in the disciplinary study of international relations. The contributors to this volume inquire into the relationship between militarism and childhood in advanced (post)industrial societies and ask what can be learned about its sources and implications. Together they provide an important corrective to too narrow a focus on zones of conflict that might make it seem as though militarism operates through the lives of children only in distant and politically fraught places"--