Children Born of War in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This book explores the integration of children born of war (CBOW) into post-conflict societies by investigating children fathered by foreign soldiers in several conflicts spanning much of the 20th and 21st centuries: the Second World War, the Vietnam War, the Bosnian War, the sub-Saharan African conflicts around the Rwandan Genocide and the LRA conflict and late 20th century peacekeeping operations. Using these case studies as starting points, the volume explores the challenges faced by the children themselves and their mothers within their post-conflict receptor communities by looking at the development of experience over time and across different geographical regions. It contextualises historically the conflict and post-conflict policies towards children born of war and their families and discusses the consequences of such policies. In particular, it analyses comparatively childhood adversities and psychosocial challenges as well as changes to the legal and political environments while being mindful of giving the CBOW themselves a voice through participatory research methods. The book is based on extensive archival research including archival research in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States Canada and the Netherlands as well as oral history research among CBOW in the UK, US, Germany and Uganda. Its insights will be of value not only for academic scholars in history, political and social science, development studies and psychology, but also for NGO practitioners, policy makers and those engaged in advocacy.

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