Militarization of Childhood and the Politics of Belonging: A Rereading of Child Recruitment
una reinterpretación del reclutamiento infantil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2026.e109482Keywords:
Chilhood, Militarization, Recruitment, Children, EstateAbstract
This article critically analyzes the supposed paradox between childhood, understood as a space-time of innocence, and militarization, understood as the social processes that normalize military values as natural, based on a reinterpretation of child recruitment. Based on the case of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, I argue that a critical approach to child recruitment acts as the main condition of possibility for questioning how childhood and militarization act in co-constitutive ways, and how the relationship between them establishes the normative contours of the construction of political belonging to the state. The article highlights that the recruitment of children should not be understood simply as a practice of formal enlistment, but rather as a process marked by the gradual normalization of military values and ideological alignment with the Armed Forces. Thus, this work aims to contribute to contemporary discussions on the militarization of childhood, shifting the focus from the stereotype of the child soldier to the ways in which the normalization of military power acts as a formative condition of belonging to the State.
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