Description
This paper examines the ambivalent ways in which children and the youth are presented as part of the war on drugs in Southeast Asia. Drawing upon the case studies of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s war on drugs in Thailand in 2003, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing campaign, the paper shows how both leaders upheld the protection of the youth and children as a key reason for tackling drugs. However, it is also shown how the vigilante style killings of children in both contexts delegitimised the project to apparently protect young people. Using the speeches of Thaksin and Duterte as a starting point, this paper argues that as well as being referred to as prized referents in the drug war, the youth were also presented and understood as a biopolitical entity- who were both essential to the future of the nation, but also a risk to ‘life as it should be lived’. Consequently, this paper builds upon and nuances work by Jacob (2015), Wagnsson, Hellman, and Holmberg (2010) and Macmillan (2015) on the presentation of children in conflict situations as objects of international concern.
