Dehistoricizing the Agency of Children who Participate in Conflict

A recent blog post by the small wars journal on child soldiers through various quotes claims that the phenomenon of child soldiers is a recent development in history indicating that children have no agency whatsoever in their involvement in military activity and violence.

This is simply false:

1. Children have been involved in conflicts throughout history. See Rosen's Armies of the Young
2. Much of the time children choose to participate in conflict either because of their political beliefs, vigilantism, or as a survival tactic. In such circumstances such as war, children choose to do what is in their best interest, displaying agency in their decision making processes.
3. The focus should not be on vulnerable children but on the circumstances that make children vulnerable which are created due to structural and systematic problems in the international system that children through their participation in violence choose to resist.
4. Contrary to popular assumption children are not always innocent and vulnerable, but rather this portrayal of children is a particular social construction of childhood. See James and Prout's Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood