Children At War

Children at War is the first comprehensive book to examine the growing and global use of children as soldiers. P.W. Singer, an internationally recognized expert in twenty-first-century warfare, explores how a new strategy of war, utilized by armies and warlords alike, has targeted children, seeking to turn them into soldiers and terrorists. Singer writes about how the first American serviceman killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan—a Green Beret—was shot by a fourteen-year-old Afghan boy; how suspected militants detained by U.S. forces in Iraq included more than one hundred children under the age of seventeen; and how hundreds who were taken hostage in Thailand were held captive by the rebel "God's Army," led by twelve-year-old twins. Interweaving the voices of child soldiers throughout the book, Singer looks at the ways these children are recruited, abducted, trained, and finally sent off to fight in war-torn hot spots, from Colombia and the Sudan to Kashmir and Sierra Leone. He writes about children who have been indoctrinated to fight U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; of Iraqui boys between the ages of ten and fifteen who had been trained in military arms and tactics to become Saddam Hussein's Ashbal Saddam (Lion Cubs); of young refugees from Pakistani madrassahs who were recruited to help bring the Taliban to power in the Afghan civil war. The author, National Security Fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World, explores how this phenomenon has come about, and how social disruptions and failures of development in modern Third World nations have led to greater global conflict and an instability that has spawned a new pool of recruits. He writes about how technology has made today's weapons smaller and lighter and therefore easier for children to carry and handle; how one billion people in the world live in developing countries where civil war is part of everyday life; and how some children—without food, clothing, or family—have volunteered as soldiers as their only way to survive. Finally, Singer makes clear how the U.S. government and the international community must face this new reality of modern warfare, how those who benefit from the recruitment of children as soldiers must be held accountable, how Western militaries must be prepared to face children in battle, and how rehabilitation programs can undo this horrific phenomenon and turn child soldiers back into children.

This is the story of two children caught in the midst of war.It is 1939 and thirteen-year-old Ilse, half-Jewish, has been sent out of Germany by her Aryan mother to a place of supposed safety. Her journey takes her from the labyrinthine bazaars of Morocco to Paris, a city made hectic at the threat of Nazi invasion. At the same time in Germany, Nicolai, a boy miserably destined for the Nazi Youth movement, finds comfort in the friendship of Ilse’s mother, the nursemaid hired to take care of his young sister. Gripping and poignant, The Children’s War is a stunning novel of wartime lives, of parents and children, of adventure and self-discovery.

From U.S. soldiers having to fight children in Afghanistan and Iraq to juvenile terrorists in Sri Lanka to Palestine, the new, younger face of battle is a terrible reality of 21st century warfare. Indeed, the very first American soldier killed by hostile fire in the “War on Terrorism” was shot by a fourteen-year-old Afghan boy. Children at War is the first comprehensive examination of a disturbing and escalating phenomenon: the use of children as soldiers around the globe. Interweaving explanatory narrative with the voices of child soldiers themselves, P.W. Singer, an internationally recognized expert in modern warfare, introduces the brutal reality of conflict, where children are sent off to fight in war-torn hotspots from Colombia and the Sudan to Kashmir and Sierra Leone. He explores the evolution of this phenomenon, how and why children are recruited, indoctrinated, trained, and converted to soldiers and then lays out the consequences for global security, with a special case study on terrorism. With this established, he lays out the responses that can end this horrible practice. What emerges is not only a compelling and clarifying read on the darker reality of modern warfare, but also a clear and urgent call for action.

The amount of international research on 'Children and War' carried out by academics, governments and non-governmental organizations has continually increased in recent years. At the same time there has been growing public interest in how children experience military conflicts and how their lives have been affected by war and its aftermath. In light of the many brutal post-colonialist civil wars or 'new wars', especially in Africa and Asia, child soldiers have in particular gained increased attention. Simultaneously, since the 1990s, the history of the Holocaust and World War II has also increasingly been written from the perspective of children; those who speak out now and publish their memoirs experienced the Holocaust as children. A similar generational change has also taken place in the societies of the perpetrators: Germans and Austrians who experienced the war as children took over the role of war witnesses from the soldiers of the German Wehrmacht. Moreover, intensified focus on children's experiences and their strategies for dealing with what they went through is evident in Eastern Europe as well. In Children and War: Past and Present Volume II scholars from different academic disciplines, practitioners in the field, and representatives of government and non-governmental institutions present a further selection of studies in this sensitive subject from different angles and in various methodological ways. A number of studies investigate the difficult areas of recovery and reintegration both of child soldiers specifically, and children affected by armed conflict. Further sections examine Victims and Witnesses, Public Discourse and Education and World War II and the Second Generation.

Provides interviews with twenty-three young Iraqi children who have moved away from their homeland and tells of their fears, challenges, and struggles to rebuild their lives in foreign lands as refugees of war.

This extraordinary memoir tells the true story of a former child soldier, who survived and escaped a violent life to become Africa's number-one hip-hop artist and an international ambassador for children in war-torn countries.

Book Description: A unique collection of original essays that investigates the impacts of the war on drugs on children and young people. With contributions from around the world and utilizing a wide range of styles and approaches including ethnographic studies, personal accounts and interviews, the book asks three fundamental questions: What have been the costs to children of the war on drugs? Is the protection of children from drugs a solid justification for current policies? What kinds of public fears and preconceptions exist in relation to drugs and the drug trade?

Fifteen generations of Hassanakis's family have been Cretan. After WW1, amidst rumours that Cretan Muslims will be sent to Turkey, Hassanakis worries he will have to leave behind his great love, the Greek widow Marigo, and his beloved homeland. He can't believe he will be sent to a country whose language he barely knows and where he knows no-one.

The tragic story of war as told through the voices of children in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland. Through their stories, drawings, and photo images based on the documentary of the same name premiering on HBO, readers learn that the face of war is younger than they think. Illustrations.

Author Elon Perry uniquely combines the narrative of a challenging childhood amidst wartime struggles with the gripping tale of military service in a commando unit. The book differs from other books on the subject because the plot revolves around two themes: a difficult and impoverished childhood during times of war, and military service in a commando unit, carried out with the aim of exacting revenge on the enemy and featuring vivid and detailed descriptions of battles. In the book, real stories and events are infused, including daring operations from the battlefield. Some of these accounts have never before been published, and only today, 40 years after the events, has the Israeli censorship allowed them to be shared. This story can be an inspiration to people who find themselves in desperate situations. They can learn how against all odds and in any given situation one can survive difficulties, as long as one has the will, perseverance, and belief that anything is possible.