Children and War: How “Soft” Research Can Answer the Hard Questions in Political Science

Blattman, Christopher

doi:10.1017/s1537592712000746

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Although not all reviewers of Dallaire’s book make this criticism (e.g. Blattman, 2012; Dupuy, 2011), many scholars dispute the accuracy of this perception of child soldiers more broadly and note its cultural bias. For example, writing about constructions of child soldiers in popular Western media, Denov (2012: 281) states that they are ‘frequently constructed within a framework of extremes (as either extreme victims, extreme perpetrators or extreme heroes), [but] in reality, the lives of these children fall within the grey, ambiguous and paradoxical zones of each’.…”

Section: The Specificity Of the Visualmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Blattman offers an additional critique of cultural bias, noting the starkness of the contrast Dallaire draws between his own training as a cadet in the Canadian army and the recruitment and training of child soldiers. Although Blattman (2012) acknowledges the ‘huge difference’ between these, he writes that ‘cadet camps, even Canadian ones, are first and foremost institutions aimed at training, recruiting and, inescapably, indoctrinating children who, by Dallaire’s own account, are more susceptible to influence and the manipulation of adults’ (pp. 407–408).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Imaginative Animated Non-Fiction: Educating Adults about Child Soldiers

Brownlee

2023

Animation

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This case study investigates the overlapping categories of animated documentary, useful animation, and fiction inspired by real events. It analyzes a training video for adults who work with child soldiers that was created by IoM Media and the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security. This video incorporates elements of animated narrative fiction, children’s television animation, reenactment, and photographic and auditory indexicality. Ultimately, no one form has a greater claim to the truth than the others; rather, truth is constructed through the interrelation of disparate elements, and the video’s pedagogical and activist ends are served by abstraction and anti-realism as much as by indexicality. The video also prompts wider questions about temporality and degrees of abstraction in different modes of documentary. The arguments this article presents about the case study are more broadly applicable to non-fiction animated film and to both live-action and animated documentary.

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Section: The Specificity Of the Visualmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Imaginative Animated Non-Fiction: Educating Adults about Child Soldiers

Brownlee

2023

Animation

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“…Perhaps the greatest interest in the violence/group/socialization nexus has come from those studying child soldiers (Gates & Reich, 2010; Blattman, 2012). This is not surprising, as a core finding from the classic socialization literature is that children are more susceptible than adults to socialization (Draper, 1974; Blattman, 2007).…”

Section: Socialization and Violence: State Of The Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socialization and violence

Checkel

2017

Journal of Peace Research

100

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This article sets the stage for a special issue exploring group-level dynamics and their role in producing violence. My analytic focus is socialization, or the process through which actors adopt the norms and rules of a given community. I argue that it is key to understanding violence in many settings, including civil war, national militaries, post-conflict societies and urban gangs. While socialization theory has a long history in the social sciences, I do not simply pull it off the shelf, but instead rethink core features of it. Operating in a theory-building mode and drawing upon insights from other disciplines, I highlight its layered and multiple nature, the role of instrumental calculation in it and several relevant mechanisms – from persuasion, to organized rituals, to sexual violence, to violent display. Equally important, I theorize instances where socialization is resisted, as well as the (varying) staying power of norms and practices in an individual who leaves the group. Empirically, the special issue explores the link between socialization and violence in paramilitary patrols in Guatemala; vigilantes in the Bosnian civil war; gangs in post-conflict Nicaragua; rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Sierra Leone and Uganda; post-conflict peacekeepers; and the US and Israeli military. By documenting this link, we contribute to an emerging research program on group dynamics and conflict.

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“…In such cases, the degree to which an armed group enlists children also will be influenced by ‘the characteristics of the accessibility of recruits: the number of usable children vs. adults in the area; the ease of capturing a child compared to an adult; the existence of exceptionally good “fishing grounds” such as refugee camps or secondary schools; and so on’ (Andvig & Gates, 2010: 90). Under such conditions the labor supply of children is flatter than that of adults, raising the demand for child soldiers (Andvig & Gates, 2010; Blattman, 2012).…”

Section: Forced Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Membership matters

Gates

2017

Journal of Peace Research

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Unable to attract enough voluntary recruits, many rebel groups rely on force to fill their ranks. Given that the group used force to compel individuals to join, a coerced conscript would be presumed unlikely to be loyal and would be expected to desert at the first opportunity. Yet, groups that have relied on coerced recruitment retain their members just as well as, if not better than, rebel armies that rely on voluntary methods of recruitment. This is a puzzle. How do rebel groups maintain allegiance and prevent desertion, especially if they rely on abduction to staff their ranks? A recruit can be forced to join a rebel group, but continuing to rely on coercion to enforce retention is too costly and not sustainable. These groups must find a way to reduce the costs of retention. The solution to this puzzle rests in the mechanisms of socialization that shape the allegiance of forcibly recruited soldiers. Socialization mechanisms are traced through three outcomes: compliance (or Type 0 socialization), role learning (Type I socialization), and norm internalization (Type II socialization). Integrating socialization theory and a rational choice analysis demonstrates that mechanisms that alter preferences through Type II socialization are effective in retaining recruits; the highest level of retention occurs when several mechanisms work in concert. Illustrative case studies of the Lord’s Resistance Army from Uganda, the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, the Maoists in Nepal, and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) show that a reliance on child soldiers, group assets (pecuniary and non-pecuniary), organizational structure, and the nature of military contestation shape when different mechanisms are effective or not.

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Children and War: How “Soft” Research Can Answer the Hard Questions in Political Science

Cited by 5 publications

References 25 publications

Imaginative Animated Non-Fiction: Educating Adults about Child Soldiers

Imaginative Animated Non-Fiction: Educating Adults about Child Soldiers

Socialization and violence

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