Introduction: Combatants, Troublemakers, Peacebuilders or What?

The youth question in conflict-affected and post-conflict societies has become policy relevant for several international organizations and donor agencies working in a range of fragile environments. Technical advisors on youth based programming, social advocacy, gender focused programmes, and health, education, employment, training and livelihoods are part and parcel of the development challenge facing the international community across Asia, Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. The focus on youth stems largely from the demographic reality of youthful populations voicing their demands through both violent and non-violent means. The events across the Arab world and in Ukraine recently present important issues that face young people in today’s complex modern environments. To be a young person is not an easy thing anymore. Whether it is the United Kingdom, the United States of America, China, India, Turkey, Palestine, or in Nigeria, young people are facing challenges with respect to education, employment, housing, identity, political participation and social integration. But who are youth? Are they a homogeneous category with similar needs, or do they represent wide differences based on class, gender, ethnicity, religion and other forms of group specific affiliation?