Children Born of War in the Twentieth Century

This book explores the integration of children born of war 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 and the sub-Saharan African conflicts around the Rwandan Genocide and the LRA conflict. 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 experiences of both over time and across different geographical regions. It historically contextualises the conflict and post-conflict policies towards the children 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 children themselves a voice through participatory research methods. The book is based on extensive archival work including research in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States Canada and the Netherlands as well as oral history research among children born of war in the UK, US, Germany and Uganda. Its insights will be of value not only for scholars in history, political and social science, development studies and psychology, but also for NGO practitioners, policy makers and those engaged in advocacy.