Helen Brocklehurst - Whos Afraid of Children?: Children, Conflict and International Relations

If children are people under 18 years old, it may be said that they form half of the worlds population. Age however, in many respects, is not sufficient in itself as an indicator of childhood, nor does it illustrate why such persons are potentially receiving or deserving of different treatment throughout this time. In fact there is no single or agreed definition of childhood recognized or acted upon worldwide. As a unique and transient period of intense physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development; a time span delineated differently across and within communities and cultures; a managed societal or economic initiation; and a portal to romanticized and marketable evocations, images and memories, the consideration of childhood presents a unique empirical and theoretical challenge. Children are shaped not only by their underdevelopment as persons, but by conceptions earned and bestowed by the many individuals and groups who hold expectations of children, individually, collectively, simultaneously, arbitrarily and even contradictorily.

For the purposes of this book, however, all those considered to be children and childlike, are of interest. The construction or the image of a child, invoked in the minds of those fighting for their women and children for example, is important to this discussion. It is also true that people can remain forever children in the eyes of their parents, regardless of age, as evidenced in the Latin American protest movement Madres de Plaza de Mayo whose grown-up children disappeared during Argentine military rule. The choice of bestowed identity is of interest here despite the ambiguity.

The formal study of childhood, itself a young discipline, is another vital entry point. Childhood is often a clearly subdivided life phase though across different cultures and contexts these divisions may have no exact correspondence especially in later childhood. For the purposes of this book, all ages and stages of childhood are relevant. In the English language alone we may speak of early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence and baby, infant, child, teenager and youth to describe a spectrum of immature individuals with associated qualities and roles. As one identifies older persons, the terms child, juvenile, minor, youth and even person can be found interchangeably in international and customary law. The precise term used may also subtly bestow a social and political context. Youth describes a relatively older child though its use often suggests pejorative adult capabilities, notably in terms of the threat of physical strength and potential criminality. The category of youth is thus included in this analysis of childhood by extension and because these social and political associations also inform the concept of child. Childhood is clearly a concept which can be made and unmade. Through Military Orders imposed by Israel for example, Palestinians have been exclusively reclassified as adults from the age of sixteen. In Northern Ireland children throwing stones at the armed forces were described in the press as violent youths or innocent boys almost arbitrarily. Explicit or sensationalized portrayals of children in these political settings often unwittingly describe them as having lost their childhood. The idea that childhood and politics are mutually exclusive is one of the central building blocks of the book. No attempt to create a universal or comprehensive conception of the child will be made.

In major works that attempt to conceptualize childhood, authors engaging in historical enquiries often admit to frustration with partial evidence and inconclusive arguments. Philip Aries work, Centuries of Childhood