Children in uniform?

 

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Mark A. Drumbl, a Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University and the co-author of a recently published research handbook on child soldiering, to discuss the international problem of children associated with armed groups and/or forces.

 

An expert in international criminal law, Mark has spent the majority of his career contemplating the complexities surrounding this issue. In his recent works, he hopes to help people reconsider their perspectives of child soldiers – arguing the inherently nuanced nature of today’s topic and the importance of changing our mindset to better appreciate its many challenges and wide-ranging implications. Mark believes that child soldiers remain poorly understood and inadequately protected, despite the considerable media and policy attention they have received. His Research Handbook addresses the troubling gap he and other scholars, professionals and activists see. 

 

How do we begin to think, and talk, about child soldering? Who are these young people? How does our global community regard young people and children? Aaron and Mark delve into these and other questions. They discuss the current recruitment practices of some of the world’s most powerful militaries, including Germany, the U.K., and the United States, as well as the Rwandan Genocide, the G.I.s of World Wars I and II, juvenile rights, categorical understandings of age and more. Mark’s book is a comprehensive showcase of diverse experiences and unique perspectives, unpacking the life-cycle of youth and militarization. Aaron and Mark talk about these concepts and further explore the prevailing assumptions and conceptions of child soldiers, while considering how these ideas can be applied to a broader conversation about young people, volunteerism, individual motivation, and agency.

 

Mark Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law, where he also serves as Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. His research and teaching interests include public international law, global environmental governance, international criminal law, post-conflict justice, and transnational legal process. Professor Drumbl has held visiting appointments and has taught intensive courses at law schools world-wide, including Oxford University (University College), Université de Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), Free University of Amsterdam, University of Ottawa, Masaryk University, Trinity College-Dublin, University of Western Ontario, University of Melbourne, Monash University, Vanderbilt University, University of Sydney, and the University of Illinois.

 

To check out the Research Handbook on Child Soldiers that Mark helped co-edit, please click here.

For more information on Professor Drumbl, please visit his bio page here.

 

 

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest:  Mark A. Drumbl

 

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