Beyond the Passive Victim Paradigm: Child Soldiers as Political Subjects in South Sudan

Political subjecthood under structural coercion is advanced as an analytical lens for understanding how the passive-victim paradigm obscures the political agency of children recruited into armed conflict. Rather than presenting a descriptive account, the manuscript repositions child soldiers as political subjects—engaging questions of agency, structural coercion, and the limitations of disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) frameworks—within broader debates on African political order, state formation, and institutional design. Anchored in South Sudan, Uganda, and South Sudanese diaspora communities, the study addresses three interrelated questions: how structural conditions such as poverty, displacement, family fragmentation, and ethnic mobilisation—rather than individual predation—drive child recruitment; how DDR frameworks designed around adult male ex-combatants systematically marginalize child soldiers, particularly girls, children with conflict-born children, and those associated with state forces; and what reintegration outcomes reveal about the relationship between community-level social repair, customary justice practices, and psychological recovery across diverse ethno-linguistic settings. Methodologically, the study employs longitudinal qualitative research with former child soldiers across South Sudan, Uganda, and diaspora contexts, combining life history interviews, critical discourse analysis of DDR programme documentation (UNICEF, IOM, UNMISS), and participant observation in reintegration programmes. The approach is complemented by reflexive engagement with researcher positionality. The central analytical contribution lies not only in explaining South Sudanese and comparative experiences, but in clarifying the conditions under which instituti