All articles

Fri
10
Jan

'One of the boys': the conscription of young women to the Israeli military

Sahar Vardi

Israel has had, since its creation, mandatory military service for both men and women. It prides itself, both internally and externally, on its relatively gender-equal military in which women can both contribute to their society just as men can, and get an opportunity to prove their worth. The apparent gender equality presented by the military provokes a particular feminist perspective on the conscription of women.

One could assume that in a country with compulsory conscription, convincing young people about the importance of – and their personal interest in – serving in the military is unnecessary. Yet in fact, in Israel, like many conscript societies, the promotion of the military and of the enlistment of young people happens in a variety of ways.

Fri
10
Jan

Our children and grandchildren

Israeli bomb shelter via the NYT

Dorothy Naor -

Fri
10
Jan

Public Military Academies: Prep Schools? Or Blatant Recruitment Pools?

 ( Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune / March 21, 2012 )  Mayor Richard M. Daley talks to Ron Huberman, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools before announcing a new online summer school project at a press conference at Chicago Military Academy.

Allen McDuffee -

Public school systems are increasingly opening their doors to military academies -- primarily in poor urban areas.

Matthew Hartman had every intention of enlisting in the Army directly after his graduation in two years. But it was Col. Sterling Stokes and his military staff who convinced Hartman that college, not the battlefield, was a better option. At least for now.

"They persuaded me that there is always time to serve my country and that maybe I would be able to serve even better if I went to college first," Hartman, 16, says.The Richmond, Va., native is a junior at the Franklin Military Academy in Richmond, where Stokes is principal. He earned the highest score on the 2008 National Chemistry Olympiad in his school, and is the type of student college admissions counselors would like to see among their applicants.

Fri
10
Jan

On-screen warfare

Michael Schulze von Glaßer

Photo: German Armed Forces recruitment at Gamescom in Cologne, August 2012 (credit - Michael Schulze von Glaßer)

US troops march into Iran in 2014, the Russian army occupies half of Europe in 2016, and the USA is conquered by North Korea in 2027 – today’s video games tell controversial stories which reach an audience of millions. Here is an overview of military video games and the search for alternatives.

Fri
10
Jan

OPAC Implementation

Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, speaks at a press conference concerning the upcoming annual treaty event, held 24-26 September, which will focus on the rights of the child.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC) came into force on 12 February 2002. It is the core international human rights treaty on child soldiers: it lays out clear standards relating to the recruitment and use of under-18s by state armed forces as well as non-state armed groups which, if fully implemented, provide a strong foundation for long-term prevention of unlawful recruitment and use of children, and for assisting those who have already became involved in armed conflict.

Fri
10
Jan

Militarising Education

The incursion of the military into the British education system will mean that alternatives to war and peaceful ways of resolving conflict will be more difficult for young people to explore. In the long term we will all pay a heavy price, says Emma Sangster.

The UK government is on a drive to integrate 'military ethos and skills' into the structure of education, echoing developments in the US and founded on an ideology that says that everything military is good.  

Fri
10
Jan

Informed Choice? Armed forces recruitment practice in the United Kingdom

Informed Choice?An independent report, published in 2007, highlighting the risks posed to young people through joining the military, how young people from disadvantaged communities are targeted, how information available to potential recruits is often misleading and how the terms of service are complicated, confusing and severely restricting. The research found that a large proportion join for negative reasons, including the lack of civilian career options.

English translation unavailable for .
Thu
09
Jan

Direct Action against Militarism

Based on a piece by Cecil Arndt -

In different countries, war and militarisation take on very different meanings and have different effects, depending not only on the presence or absence of direct acts of war but also on country's political, economic, and social circumstances, and its history and traditions. As these factors define not only to the types, levels, and effects of militarisation but also the ways in which it can be effectively resisted, the scope of this article is inevitably limited; it can only provide a Western, European, largely German perspective on the use of direct action to oppose the militarisation of youth, although it explores possibilities in other countries nonetheless.

Thu
09
Jan

'Die for your country': Turning to bravery, loyalty and honour in order to legitimise war and recruit soldiers in Germany

Swearing In Ceremony For German Recruits

Jonna Schürkes

Persuading the German people that German soldiers - many of them young - should go to war is not an easy endeavour. Every militarist tries to do so and each one has a different explanation for people’s reluctance. The president of Germany, Joachim Gauck, sees it as denial by those who prefer not to acknowledge the fact that German soldiers are still getting killed and injured in combat. He laments how people are not ready to sacrifice themselves for society because of their egoism, saying '“[these people] all too easily forget that a functional democracy also requires effort, attention, bravery and sometimes even the utmost that a man can offer: his life, his own life!”' He also complains about people who come to the wrong conclusions through their knowledge of German history: '“...'Count us out' as a pure reflex is not an appropriate stance if we are to take our past seriously”'.[1]

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