Theoretical Aspects of the Phenomenon of Child Soldiers and Scientific Issues Related to It - Term Paper Example

Child Soldiers Warfare throughout the ages has been exclusively the monopoly of adult combatants. Throughout history we do find a few examples of children being involved in armed conflicts. Middle Ages Europe saw children help arm and maintain the Knights. They however only performed minor support roles and did not play an active role in combat. The Children’s Crusade of the thirteenth century was a unique exception in which Frederick Wilhelm the First introduced a law in which all male subjects would undergo military training from the age of ten onwards. The violent conflicts in the Western world during the nineteenth and twentieth century saw children as victims of wartime violence. During colonial campaigns, armies would capture the children of prominent chieftains and raise them according to the colonial nation’s customs and laws. Nazi Germany used Hitler Youth movement to try to fight the Allied forces in the closing days of World War II. However each of these cases was isolated by time and geography. They were also exceptions to the level of armed combat which children performed. Ancient wars involved minors as charioteers and armor bearers for adult warriors. This practice can be found in the Bible. War in the middle ages was fought by strong men who had the physical strength to fight in those wars. Children were only used for support roles as they could not be participants in armed combat. The Roman army for instance required physical fitness as criteria for military service which only adult combatants could perform. Fighting with swords, spears, shields and heavy weapons required the use of adult combatants. During the middle ages, military units comprised of knights, heavy cavalry and infantry were extensively used in combat. They used armor and weapons which only adults could perform. The modern era of warfare began with the use of gunpowder. The modern nature of conflict saw the extensive use of muskets, cannons and cavalry against opponents. The weapons and training required to operate these weapons could only be performed by adult combatants. The advent of the industrial age also revolutionized the concept of warfare. By the twentieth century, modern armies were now using tanks, cannons, artillery, fighter jets, submarines and naval warships against each other. Again the use of children was mostly for support roles rather than combat purposes since the expertise required to train and use these weapons was only possible for adult combatants. During the middle ages, young boys were used as squires but their role in combat was limited. During the Napoleonic wars, children were used as drummer boys in the French army. The British Royal Navy used young boys for bringing powder to the gun crews. During the Second Boer war, boys were recruited as scouts and sent on reconnaissance missions. World War II saw the use of children in insurrections against occupying powers like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Some children participated as combatants under the Soviet Union. Child soldiers were employed by local forces in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The nature of armed conflict has changed in the past few decades. The role of children in battle has changed to being the primary combatants of armed forces, militias and groups. The war in Sierra Leone demonstrates the extent of this new phenomenon in which the total number of child fighters was estimated to be between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand. Roughly eighty percent of the rebel fighters consisted of young children. The opposing side also used child soldiers extensively (Renner, 23). Armed conflicts between states are rare and most of the conflicts are internal ones between local governments and rebel groups. The proliferation of light, devastating and cheap weaponry has also contributed to the increase in insurgencies. The systematic deployment of troops reflects the rise of new type of conflict. War making has become an opportunity for profit and survival rather than achieving political or military goals. The profit motivated nature of these conflicts allows these groups to ruthlessly exploit children as soldiers. The advent of the twenty first century has seen child soldiers serving in every battlefield of every continent. The increase in intrastate conflict has forced children to take up arms forcibly by insurgent groups. They have become part of violent groups which do not hesitate to employ indiscriminate terror and brutality to terrorize the local population. Children are serving as infantry shock troops, raiders, spies, messengers and porters. Child soldiers fought in the Americas during the 1990s in countries like El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Colombia. Colombia has the largest number of child soldiers who are employed as sentries and raiders. Child fighters have been present in Europe in Chechnya, Kosovo and Nagorno Karabakh. The Kurdish insurgent group, PKK has extensively used children for guerilla operations. However Africa is the centre of child soldiers according to research. Every African armed group has a huge number of child soldiers. The most notorious example is that of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda which is made up of child soldiers. It has abducted an estimated twelve thousand children to turn them into soldiers. Asian armed groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel have extensively employed children. They have been recruited for suicide bombings, ambushes and guerilla operations. The extensive use of child soldiers is not the monopoly of armed groups. An estimated fifty states employ children into their military forces. Another fact of the child soldier phenomenon is that it has forced both boys and girls to fight for rebel groups. The LTTE group in Sri Lanka has employed girls to act as suicide bombers (Renner, 23). Global human insecurity is stunning despite the apparent benefits of globalization. An estimated one billion people live in absolute poverty. The malnourished and marginalized sections of society consist of children who bear the brunt of social problems. Child soldiers from these marginalized groups prove an attractive reserve for armed groups. Refugees and street children are forcibly recruited by militias. Famine and AIDS create orphans which makes them vulnerable to forced recruitment and brainwashing by rebel groups. The proliferation of cheap and easy to use weapons has further added to the phenomenon of child soldiers. These weapons allow children to be transformed into lethal and brutal fighters. During human history, weapons required extensive training and physical strength in order to function properly. The improvements in manufacturing have made modern weapons light and easy to use for child soldiers. By training for a short period of time in their use, a child soldier becomes a lethal fighting machine. These weapons are also cheap to produce. There are an estimated five hundred and fifty million small arms being sold for conflicts in the world. Child soldiers represent an easy and low cost way to mobilize an armed force and replenish its losses. Vulnerable and failed states have seen armed groups and militias terrorizing the countryside and imposing their will. Child soldiers allow them to cheaply train and recruit cadres for their cause while imposing their objectives at a minimum cost. Disease and warfare lower the older pool of conscripts forcing militias to recruit child soldiers. Combine this with cheap and destructive firepower, militias and armed groups have the capacity to wreak havoc in a failed or vulnerable state (Renner, 23). The incorporation of ‘child soldiers’ into social movements contesting state hegemony in African states is partly a consequence of the technological and ergonomic developments in gun manufacturing which have drastically reduced the size and weight of assault rifles, as well as the sense of alienation felt by children. It has been estimated that in Sierra Leone some 10,000 child combatants fought on either side of the civil war. Furthermore, large numbers of children were killed, injured and mutilated, with half of the RUF combatants being between 8 and 14 years old. The transition to peripheral capitalism over the past four decades and the effects of structural adjustment programs in the last two decades have impacted on the Traditional Sierra Leonean family, leading to its atomization. The emergence of peripheral capitalism not only leads to the proletarianisation of sections of the working population by destroying pre-existing modes, but by conserving some of the latter to serve the needs of accumulation, peripheral capitalism denies the proletarianised masses the welfare provisions which are taken for granted in capitalism of the centre. Street children are an important recruiting ground for child soldiers. This group consists of young boys who use their wits to survive on the streets. They engage in stealing and other causal jobs to support themselves. The military life provides them with a surrogate family relationship and protection from abuse. Government and rebel forces in conflict zones abduct children and socialize them into violence. They make loyal fighters without any social responsibilities and makes ideal for espionage work. The increasing use of child soldiers is a long term threat for the health and security of societies. Africa has become the primary war zone for child soldiers since the 1970s. There were an estimated two hundred thousand child soldiers in Africa by the start of the twenty first century (Kaufmann, 33). The primary method of recruiting child soldiers is abduction. Some insurgent groups even use sophisticated databases to direct recruiting efforts. Most of these insurgent groups have specific criteria for recruiting children. Children abducted have no choice but to join the armed groups and militias. Terror and propaganda follow recruitment to make the children to identify with the cause of the armed group. Discipline is maintained by arbitrarily punishing offenders with brutal punishments like execution. The child soldiers are also made to kill so that they can become efficient killers. They are given the basic infantry skills to fire and clean their weapons. Laying landmines and setting up ambushes are the next step in the training of child soldiers. The time period may be for a maximum of four months. After training the recruits are placed in platoon sized groups under the command of adults. These recruits are grouped according to their age. They tend to operate as raiding parties to attack civilians or ambush enemy outposts. They are successful in disrupting enemy formations. Their brutal training can quickly turn into fierce fighters. They become obedient killers due to the cruel indoctrination they receive. The successful indoctrination of children as soldiers usually means that they do not want to leave their new lives. Some of them grow addicted to drugs while others develop a sense of identity with their fellow combatants. Fear remains the most powerful factor that binds these combatants to their armed group. Within rebel groups the punishment for escape or desertion is usually death. This powerful factor prevents them from escaping (Collier, 43). The phenomenon of child soldiers changes the dynamics of modern conflicts. Any organization using child soldiers has a low cost way to generate force. Groups with child soldiers pose considerable military threats that can terrorize and disrupt civil society. This also allows organizations to survive conditions which would decimate their organizations. The rebels in Sierra Leone were quickly returned to strength despite being routed in two instances. Child fighters have been extensively used by groups which are destructive and do not want to establish good governance. They also do not depend on the protection of local communities. The use of child fighters allows weak insurgent groups to become powerful forces which can cause further chaos and conflict. Child fighters also add to chaos of war. The level of atrocities perpetrated in conflicts where child fighters have been used is very high. Killings, rape and torture are pursued by using children as soldiers. Atrocities are a major part of the methods used to transform children into fighters. Rebel groups with child fighters kill enemy POWs and wounded prisoners. Commanders also exploit these children to use them as cannon fodder which allows the protection of valuable adult soldiers. They can also be used to explore suspected minefields. Children are also used in suicide bombings and human wave attacks designed to overpower well fortified positions. They can result in the enemy expending their ammunition and providing extra targets. The phenomenon of child soldiers disrupts their psychological and moral development by making them brutal fighters (Collier, 43). Military planners say that Western armies dealing with child soldiers must exploit weaknesses in their ranks. Usually the killing of an adult leader leads to the entire organization to break down. Some children drop their weapons or others flee into the jungles. They also recommend the use of chaos and confusion to disorient and break down child soldiers. For instance helicopter gunships have been effective in intimidating child soldiers. Other measures could be to welcome the children who desert their groups. They must have adequate intelligence to know the specific makeup of the opposition force. Fire for shock tactics are effective and provide the opposition with avenues for escape. Engaging adult targets is also more effective. However in some cases Western troops might need to fire on children for their own protection. There must be strict guidelines to deal with this scenario. Also the aftermath should be clearly dealt with to ensure that troop morale is not down. For instance the fighting with the Hitler Youth soldiers substantially lowered the morale of the US forces. Force should be used proportionately and only be used when the mission objectives warrant it. Western forces can also effectively ensure that zones in which child soldiers are present should have programs that can replace the negative influence of a rebel organization or group. The phenomenon of child soldiers and the possibility of Western armies confronting is potentially a very disturbing issue. Western armies are sooner to confront children armed with deadly weapons (Collier, 43). Child soldiers represent a considerable threat and danger for countries. The proliferation of cheap arms, the huge pool of vulnerable children and social insecurity all provide armed groups with the manpower and firepower to wreck havoc in any vulnerable or failed state. Child fighters are brutally efficient in terrorizing the countryside and are considered as expendable assets by adult members of a rebel organization. Compared with conflicts of the past in which the combatants were exclusively adult, conflicts of the present century have seen the rapid rise of child soldiers. Organizations which were no major threat can now use the combination of child fighters and cheap weapons to inflict devastation on civil society. There is also a lack of research regarding the phenomenon of child soldiers. There are many questions which remain unanswered. The major questions that need to be addressed regarding child soldiers are the following: What is the single cause of child soldiers? How can the phenomenon of child soldiers be solved? What kind of tactics and strategy should be used by Western armies when confronted with child soldiers? How can child soldiers be demobilized and learn to be responsible members of society? How can the psychological and moral damage of child fighters be repaired? How can the threat of terrorists exploiting children to become potential suicide attackers be addressed? Until recently there was no need to think about professional fighting forces encountering armed units consisting of children. The practice of child soldiers was not practical. However current conflicts are sustained by child soldiers. The consequences of this new conflict are more pervasive and dangerous than previous conflicts. The key questions asked above need to be addressed so that a proper response and solution can be found to address these issues. Works Cited: Michael Renner, "The Global Divide: Socioeconomic Disparities and International Security," in World Security: Challenges for a New Century, ed. Michael Klare and Yogesh Chandrani (New York: St. Martins Press, 2005) Paul Collier, Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy, World Bank Report, 15 June 2000. Chaim Kaufmann, "Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars," International Security, 20 (Spring 1996) Read More