Published Paper Details:

In today�s world, there are about 740,000 people die and are affected as a result of armed violence each year. Armed violence erodes governance and peace whilst slowing down the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Armed violence can have a significant effect on security and development just as it has in societies that are affected by war or civil war. Youth involvement in conflict and violence is a global problem, yet research and interventions tend to be isolated to specific manifestations like participation of children in war, inter-group tensions in the aftermath of the war, street living, inter-group fighting, and inter-personal aggression or exclusion. Previous analyses have focused on specific manifestations of conflict, in part because conflicts are grounded in different geopolitical and economic situations that are interesting to researchers in different academic disciplines. In this article, the engagement of or the participation of youth in violent armed conflicts is examined. The question of why youth engage in conflict is examined through the lens of the binary argument of greed and grievances. Thus this article engages with a theoretical analysis for the causes that relate to the participation and engagement of youth in violent conflict