Epilogue

The final chapter concludes that national militaries and governments, for centuries, have ignored the offspring of their soldiers conceived in frequently exploitative relations. Governments only deviated from this approach, if those children born of war could be used for political purposes or as part of a nation-building process in which they had the potential of strengthening their paternal home. Yet, despite a multitude of challenges, many CBOW in a variety of post-conflict societies demonstrate considerable resilience.

Bosnia: a new dimension of genocidal rape and its children

The Bosnian case study is the first of the chosen cases where children born of war were almost exclusively conceived in violent relationships in a conflict which forced the world to realign its understanding of rape as a weapon of war. This chapter explores the specific impact of this gender-based violence perpetrated, among others, during systematic rape campaigns as part of the hostilities, on post-war Bosnian society and on the life courses of children born of rape. As the first case of a conflict that occurred after the passing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the chapter also explores how rights as codified in the CRC are applied in the case of children born of war and how such rights can contrast starkly in comparison to those of their mothers and families.

Children born of war during and after the Second World War

This chapter explores the relationship between soldiers and local women in various theatres of war during World War II, tracing in particular nationalistic and racial undercurrents in the development of national policies vis-à-vis,military-civilian relations. It traces in particular Nazi policies in both East and West with view to eugenics, as well as Allied policies in preparing for and implementing post-war occupations in Germany and Austria, including guidance for soldiers on relations with the (former) enemy. The final part of the chapter gives a voice to children born of war themselves. Using a variety of sources ranging from ego-documents including autobiographies and memoirs as well as interviews and narratives as well as contemporary media reports, it analyses the CBOW reflections on their lifecourses.

Unintended consequences …

The final case study explores children fathered by members of peacekeeping forces. It investigates the specific nature of peacekeeping societies and the gendered power relations within those, which have led to numerous more or less exploitative relations with significant numbers of so-called peace babies being conceived. The chapter critically analyses UN attempts at both regulating military-civilian relations in its zero-tolerance policies and at recognising the need for troops under UN flag to take responsibility for children fathered peacekeepers.

Bui Doi: the children of the Vietnam War

The chapter traces military-civilian relations during the Vietnam War and the challenges faced by Vietnamericans who remained in Vietnam compared with those who were evacuated in Operation Babylift of left Vietnam for the United States after the Amerasian Homecoming Act. Using historical and sociological approaches as well as psychological and psychiatric analyses, the investigation shines a light on how the three distinct groups experienced their upbringing and lifecourses in very different ways, depending on where geopolitical circumstances and foreign intervention placed them.The analysis zooms in on international and interracial adoption as one chosen avenue to ‘rescue’ children left behind by foreign troops – a policy found in the aftermath of many conflicts, but first practiced on a large scale in the aftermath of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

African conflicts

The chapter investigates the experience of children born of war in late 20th century sub-Saharan Africa by exploring the fate of children conceived during the Rwandan genocide and the children born of forced conjugal associations during the LRA war in Northern Uganda. Using extensive fieldwork in Northern Uganda, the analysis focusses on the impact of the ethnic undertones of the conflicts and the role of kinship in determining what guides the integration of CBOW into volatile post-conflict societies. It reflects on the gendered societal norms and their role in shaping the communities into which CBOW and their mothers have to settle and explores healing mechanisms and their limitations for affected children.

Children born of war: who are they? Experiences of children, mothers, families and post-conflict communities

This chapter provides a historical contextualisation of children born of war before reflecting on the definitions and categorisations of different groups of CBOW as used in current research. The chapter goes on to explore the discourses around conflict-related gender-based violence by tracing different theoretical approaches to GBV research and their impact on our understanding (or lack thereof) of sexual violence in conflict. The final section introduces children’s rights and specifically the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the central instrument codifying the human rights of children.

Children born of war: an introduction

This chapter introduces children born of war as a research theme. Tracing the increasing visibility of conflict-related sexual violence in recent conflicts, it reflects on the significant difference in academic and advocacy attention to challenges faced by victims of gender-based violence in wars and their offspring. In a second step the developing interdisciplinary research landscape around CBOW is explored before the five case studies and the rationale underlying the historical-comparative case study methodology are introduced.