Kids R Us: Children, Masculinity, and the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan and Iraq.

TV guide published a story during the U.S.-led war against Iraq that advised adults on steps that will minimize the potential for distress and reassure children during an unsettling time, just one story among many devoted to hand wringing out the effects of the war on terror on U.S. children. My research on the role of children in framing U.S. foreign policy for the public is intended to explore the role that ubiquitous stories about children and war, which began during the Gulf War of 1990-1991, play in the presentation of U.S. foreign policy, and the connections between childhood and the performance of comtemporary U.S. masculinity. In a paper that I presented at last year’s International Studies Association, I stressed that while conventional paradigms of masculinity, centered on rescue, protection, and chivalry are compatible with varous humanitarian interventions to ostensibly save women and children, insufficient attention has been given to the way in which consumption-driven constructions of both childhood and masculinity play a role in U.S. foreign policy. In other words, out traditional notions of both childhood and manhood have been chnaging in light of market-driven developments in advertising and branding, and these changes are being rather seamlessly woven into foreign policy representations. I intend to apply my ideas about childhood masculinities, which have developed further in the past year, to the war on terror in Afhanistan and Iraq. In so doing, I hope to further extend the application of my ideas about children and foreign policy, and contribute to further clarification about our understanding of masculinity and foreign policy as well. (quote from Mark Laswell, 2003: Kids and the Telivision War. TV Guide. April 12-18: 18-21.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]