As Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, "It is immoral that adults should want children to fight their wars for them. There is simply no excuse, no acceptable argument, for arming children."

There may be no moral excuse, but the reality is that this dark practice continues today and is only growing. And so what this book seeks to do is explain why is this happening, what are the implications of it, and then what can we do about it.

(...) we are in the midst of the most prosperous generation in human history, but we are also leaving people behind, and in particular we are leaving a cohort of children behind. Another way to put it is we are seeing a lost generation right now. All the ills of globalization, wars, etc., are falling on children hardest. When you look at the numbers, they are staggering: more than 250 million children are homeless; more than 25 million children are refugees or internally displaced persons.

A particular at-risk group for child soldiers is orphans, and their numbers are higher not only because of conflicts that are spiraling out but also because of disease. By the year 2010 it is thought that as many as 43 million children will have lost either both or one of their parents to AIDS. What this has done is created a new pool of potential combatants.