Money and Control.

This paper examines the forcible recruitment of child soldiers by rebel organizations through a comparative case study analysis of the National Resistance Army and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. Responses by the international community to the use of children as soldiers have continued to be ineffective and understanding the factors that motivate a group to forcibly recruit is crucial to curtailing the practice. This paper investigates the role that endowments of a rebel group have on their decision to forcibly recruit children as soldiers. I adapt Jeremy Weinstein's theory of the role of initial endowments on rebel group's use of force to explain why rebel organizations forcibly recruit children. I suggest that the type of endowments matter, specifically the type of endowments accessible to an organization. Endowments thus come in two forms--economic and social and each impacts how the group structures control and recruitment practices. The findings demonstrate that groups whose reliance rests on economic endowments will engage in forcible recruitment of children while groups who rely predominantly on social endowments will refrain from forcible recruitment of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]