Table of Contents

Part I Children at War 1 Children and War 2 It's a Small World After All: Child Soldiers Around the Globe Part II The Process and Results of Child Soldiers 3 The Underlying Causes 4 How Children Are Recruited into War 5 Turning a Child into a Soldier 6 The Implications of Children on the Battlefield 7 The New Children of Terror Part III Responding to the Child Soldier Problem 8 Preventing Child Soldiers 9 Fighting Children 10 Turning a Soldier Back into a Child 11 Looking Ahead Appendix Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict Notes Index

Reviews

"P.W. Singer's eye-opening book serves as a platform to reassess perceptions of modern warfare. In it, he expresses truths that most people would hesitate to mention. . . .Overall, it's more than an interesting read--it's an invaluable resource for the long term."

"P.W. Singer's eye-opening book serves as a platform to reassess perceptions of modern warfare. In it, he expresses truths that most people would hesitate to mention. . . .Overall, it's more than an interesting read--it's an invaluable resource for the long term."

Foreign affairs expert Singer (Corporate Warriors) offers an illuminating work on the use of child soldiers in conflicts across the globe. This endemic problem involving some 300,000 child combatants is attributable to a tangle of factors including extreme poverty, AIDS, a worldwide glut of light automatic weapons, and a lack of political will to enforce laws. Unscrupulous leaders see children as inexpensive, malleable, and easily replaceable fighters who can be used to plunder villages, traffic drugs, and seize control of resources. Children are abducted sometimes as young as age six and desensitized to acts of violence. The impact on child survivors is traumatic: devoid of education and unfamiliar with normal patterns of social behavior, they are not easily rehabilitated and reintegrated into their families. Singer outlines a cogent program for thwarting the use of child soldiers and argues passionately that the U.S. military and other armed forces should develop training and doctrine to cope effectively with child combatants. Recommended for all academic and public libraries.-Edward J. Metz, USACGSC Combined Arms Research Lib., Ft. Leavenworth, KS Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.