A light sandwich lunch is served at 12.50pm before the seminar.
This talk discusses the issues involved in using children in conflict, assesses the changing characteristics of security and war , and explains the complex international system, and theinterwoven constraints and opportunities on government policy and choice in this field. Approximately, a quarter million children are involved in military action today – many thousands under ten years of age – by seven governments and many rebellious groups in 14 states. In order to discover explanations of the multiple, situations the paper posits a preliminary international child soldier potential index for all states in the world.
Dr Robert Jackson is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Redlands in California. He spends each Trinity Term in Oxford as a Visiting Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme. After receiving his doctorate from Pembroke College, Oxford, he taught courses in Canadian, Comparative and International Relations at Carleton and McGill Universities for 35 years. He continues to teach international relations at Redlands, Carleton, and other Universities around the world. He has served as Senior Policy Advisor to two Canadian Prime Ministers and a Deputy Prime Minister, worked in the Privy Council Office (Cabinet Office) and has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He is a continuing Director of the Atlantic Council of Canada. Professor Jackson is the author and co-author of 38 books and some 50 articles. Cambridge University Press published his newest book on international politics Global Politics in the 21st Century in August 2013.
Professor Jackson is currently conducting A Major Study of the Complexities of Global Politics and the Changing Nature of Security on Children and Armed Conflict, based on interviews and statistical analysis of international data sets and the development of an original potential child soldier index.
