Issue cover

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021)

View Issue TOC

Child Soldiers as Political Subjects: Agency, Structural Coercion, and the Failure of DDR in South Sudan

Abraham Kuol Nyuon
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19501879
Published: April 10, 2026

Abstract

This study critiques the dominant victimhood narrative within child soldier discourse by reconceptualising these children as political subjects, possessing agency within profoundly coercive structures during South Sudan’s civil conflicts. It posits that the chronic failure of Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) programmes is rooted in a fundamental misrecognition of children’s tactical and social roles within entrenched political economies. The research investigates how child soldiers exercise political subjectivity, navigating, resisting, and being instrumentalised by militarised patronage networks that define South Sudan’s conflict landscape. Employing an interdisciplinary qualitative methodology centred on African perspectives, the analysis draws from in-depth interviews with former child soldiers, community leaders, and programme implementers, alongside critical documentary analysis of policy frameworks. The findings demonstrate that children’s participation is often a calculated adaptation to systemic violence and economic deprivation, yet their agency remains circumscribed by structural coercion. A concrete result is that DDR’s technocratic, apolitical design, by ignoring these political dimensions and the vested interests benefiting from recruitment, inadvertently reinforces the very networks it seeks to dismantle. The study’s novelty lies in its theoretical integration of political subjectivity with the concept of structural coercion to explain the cyclical failure of reintegration. Consequently, the implications argue for a paradigm shift in policy and practice, moving beyond seeing child soldiers solely as victims to be saved towards engaging with them as political actors within interventions that deliberately confront the underlying political economy of conflict. This re-conceptualisation is essential for formulating more effective, context-sensitive strategies within African peace and conflict studies.

Full Text:

PDF HTML Cover Image

Read the Full Article

The HTML galley is loaded below for inline reading and better discovery.

Open HTML Open PDF

How to Cite

Abraham Kuol Nyuon (2026). Child Soldiers as Political Subjects: Agency, Structural Coercion, and the Failure of DDR in South Sudan. African Peace and Conflict Studies (Broader - Interdisciplinary), Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19501879
EndNote (RIS) BibTeX

Keywords

Child SoldiersPolitical AgencyStructural CoercionDisarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR)South Sudan Civil WarMilitarised PatronageConflict Political EconomyPost-Conflict Intervention

Research Snapshot

Desktop reading view
Language
EN
Formats
HTML + PDF
Publication Track
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021)
Current Journal
African Peace and Conflict Studies (Broader - Interdisciplinary)

References

  • Blair, R., Salvatore, J.D., & Smidt, H. (2021). When Do UN Peacekeeping Operations Implement Their Mandates?. American Journal of Political Science.
  • Collins, P.H., Silva, E.C.G.D., Ergün, E., Furseth, I., Bond, K.D., & Palacios, J.M. (2021). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Contemporary Political Theory.
  • Féron, É., & Krause, K. (2022). Power/resistance: External actors, local agency, and the Burundian peacebuilding project. European Journal of International Security.
  • Gallopin, J., Thomas, E., Detzner, S., & Waal, A.D. (2021). Sudan’s political marketplace in 2021: public and political finance, the Juba agreement and contests. London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science).
  • Glawion, T. (2022). Cross-case patterns of security production in hybrid political orders: their shapes, ordering practices, and paradoxical outcomes. Peacebuilding.
  • Hoefnagels, M. (2021). Political violence and peace research. Repression and Repressive Violence.
  • Kostelyanets, S.V. (2021). IGAD’s Mediation and Peacekeeping in Africa: Challenges and Perspectives. Advances in African economic, social and political development.
  • Magara, I.S. (2022). Complexities of international mediation at sub-regional levels in Africa: lessons from South Sudan. Journal of Aggression Conflict and Peace Research.
  • Majid, N., Sarkar, A., Elder, C., Abdirahman, K., Detzner, S., Miller, J.B., & Waal, A.D. (2021). Somalia’s politics: the usual business? A synthesis paper of the Conflict Research Programme. London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science).
  • Mathew, J., & Moolakkattu, J.S. (2022). Russia in the Horn of Africa: Re-engagement in a new strategic environment. South African Journal of International Affairs.
  • Mehchy, Z., & Turkmani, R. (2021). Understanding the impact of sanctions on the political dynamics in Syria. London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science).
  • Mena, R., & Hilhorst, D. (2022). Path dependency when prioritising disaster and humanitarian response under high levels of conflict: a qualitative case study in South Sudan. Journal of International Humanitarian Action.
  • Mirzayeva, F. (2021). Organized violence and elite political culture in Nigeria. Pathways to Peace and Security.
  • Olsen, V.M., Fensholt, R., Olofsson, P., Bonifácio, R., Butsic, V., Druce, D., Ray, D.K., & Prishchepov, A.V. (2021). The impact of conflict-driven cropland abandonment on food insecurity in South Sudan revealed using satellite remote sensing. Nature Food.
  • Omelicheva, M.Y., & Markowitz, L.P. (2021). Rethinking Intersections of Crime and Terrorism: Insights from Political Economies of Violence. International Studies Review.
  • Sassi, M. (2022). Determinants of Household Nutrition Security in Countries in Protracted Crisis: Evidence from South Sudan. Sustainability.
  • Schouten, P. (2021). Violence and Fragmentation in Congo's Political Marketplace. London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science).
  • Sovacool, B.K. (2021). Who are the victims of low-carbon transitions? Towards a political ecology of climate change mitigation. Energy Research & Social Science.
  • Villiers, K.D. (2021). Bridging the health inequality gap: an examination of South Africa’s social innovation in health landscape. Infectious Diseases of Poverty.
  • Zhou, Y., & Shaver, A. (2021). Reexamining the Effect of Refugees on Civil Conflict: A Global Subnational Analysis. American Political Science Review.