Sowing Seeds: The Militarisation of Youth and How to Counter It

Edited by Owen Everett

Around the world children, adolescents, and young adults encounter the military and military values in a variety of ways, from visits to schools by military personnel, to video games and the presence of the military and its symbols in public places. Young people are encouraged to see the military as necessary and valuable; something to be supportive of, not to question.

Through articles, images, survey data and interviews, Sowing Seeds: The Militarisation of Youth and How to Counter It documents the seeds of war that are planted in the minds of young people in many different countries. However, it also explores the seeds of resistance to this militarisation that are being sown resiliently and creatively by numerous people. We hope the book will help to disseminate these latter seeds. It is not just a book for peace and antimilitarist activists: it is a book for parents and grandparents, teachers, youth workers, and young people themselves. 

Download the full book as a pdf here.

PUBLISHED BY WAR RESISTERS' INTERNATIONAL

June 2013

ISBN 978-0-903517-27-0

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

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CONTENTS

• Thanks

• Sergeiy Sandler: Introduction

Overt and Covert Recruitment: The Militarisation of Public and Private Space

• Survey findings and quotes

• David Gee: 'Catch them young before the army loses them'

• Rafael Uzcategui: The militarisation of everyday life in Venezuela

• Michael Schulze von Glaßer: Publicity campaigns: The German Armed Forces’s struggle for the hearts and minds of the population

• Ruti Kantor and Diana Dolev: Invisible militarism in Israel

• Boro Kitanoski: Monuments and memory in Former Yugoslavia

• Michael Schulze von Glaßer: On-screen warfare

• Jorge Veléz: The impact of war and the para-state in Colombia

Shaping the Debate: Militarising Public Discourse and Education

• Survey findings and quotes

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

• Serdar Değirmencioğlu: Young people in Turkey besieged by militarism: Past and present

• Dan Contreras: Violence, military service, and the education system in Chile

• Emma Sangster: The military's influence in UK education

Gender and Queer Perspectives

• Survey findings and quotes

• Andreas Speck: Queer and gender critiques of military recruitment and militarisation

• Sahar Vardi: 'One of the boys': The conscription of young women to the Israeli military

Resistance

• Quotes

• Kelly Dougherty: The role of military veterans and current service members

• Ralf Willinger: Child Rights: Using international law and the UN

• Kai-Uwe Dosch, Sarah Roßa and Lena Sachs: Resisting the militarisation of education

• Direct action against militarism

• Cattis Laska and Hanns Molander: The need for a queer perspective

Other

• Notes on the contributors

• Resources

Download the pull book as a pdf here.