Disarming Youth Combatants: Mitigating Youth Radicalization and Violent Extremism

This article explores the complex push and pull factors behind recruitment and participation in civil conflict (including re-recruitment). It argues that as part of disarming youth combatants, the linkages between reintegration outcomes and possible re-recruitment into radical and extremist
violence must be better understood. In the authors analysis the policies guiding reintegration of child soldiers and youth should be better attuned to the relationship between
recruitment motivations and reintegration outcomes, and must be approached from a political lens rather than a purely technical one.