Since the end of the Cold War, the recruitment of child soldiers has been recognized as an increasingly global phenomenon. Although most of the relatively recent cases of child soldier recruitment have developed as a result of armed conflicts in Africa, at the beginning of the new millennium the trend has increased globally, manifesting itself in almost all continents, including Asia, Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of this practice has turned it into a much-discussed international issue. The purpose of this article is to examine how this problem is influenced and even exacerbated by globalization. More specifically, it will be argued that globalization, expressed through the existence of international organizations, such as the United Nations, has been ineffective in ending the phenomenon of child soldiers and that globalization, defined by the interconnectedness of world economies, has led to the underdevelopment and therefore exasperated conflict and consequently child soldiers. Background As defined by Timothy Webster, author of Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, a child soldier is “any person under the age of eighteen who is or has been associated with any type of regular or irregular armed group, including those who serve as porters, spies, cooks, messengers and including girls recruited for sexual purposes (Webster, 2007, pp.230). As this definition reveals, a child soldier is more than just a kid with a gun. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18 currently used as soldiers in 33 conflicts, and this figure continues to increase (Webster, 2007, pp.227). Likewise, in 1999 it was estimated that more than 120,000 children, under the age of 18, were used as soldiers to fight... middle of paper... be seen as an entity promoting ignoble results. However, it is crucial to understand that globalization is multi-layered and difficult to fully understand. In the case of child soldiers, globalization has played an important role in unifying international organizations in the hope of finding a solution to this “phenomenon”. On the other hand, although some international organizations such as the United Nations have played a leading role in the fight against child soldiers, their attempts are insufficient for the following reasons: lack of capacity to enforce sanctions established within of the international community and not doing enough to recognize the political, social and economic inequalities prevalent in most of these fragile states. Therefore, the child soldier phenomenon cannot be eradicated until these issues are addressed on a collective global scale.