Home | National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

Students

Every US military recruit is trained to fight and to kill and obligated to eight years of enlistment.

Ongoing conflicts today prove that deployment can happen at any time. You owe it to yourself to consider the many alternatives that do not restrict your life options. - Learn more

Parents

Enlisting in the military has been sold for generations as a way to grow up, get a start in life, maybe learn a skill and be part of a noble cause.

If you have kids today, recruiters will tell that familiar story. But today, less and less of it is true. - Learn more

Teachers and community

Based on years of experience in public schools, facilitating student organizations dealing with peace (i.e. peace clubs) in your area can have a transformative impact on student autonomy and school culture around pervasive militarism. Learn more

Who we are

The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) is a network of organizations that organizes against the militarization of schools and young people in the United States.

NNOMY brings local, regional, and national peace and human rights groups together to connect youth to pathways towards meaningful lives, as alternatives to military enlistment.

"The U.S. military is deeply embedded in public schools, shaping children’s futures long before they’re old enough to understand the consequences — and parents were never meaningfully asked."

NNOMY was founded in the aftermath of the 2004 national counter-recruitment conference "Stopping War Where it Begins" in Philadelphia.^[1] It is intended to be a decentralized and flexible structure that helps national, regional and local activists and organizations by promoting communication efforts and by stimulating collaboration between network members. NNOMY organizes actions and campaigns against militarism in order to raise awareness and to increase education on the topic.

JROTC and Young Marines: Two Paths Into Military Culture — And Two Americas

Across the United States, young people encounter military culture in very different ways. Some meet it in school, where JROTC is woven into the daily routine of classes, hallways, and assemblies. Others join the Young Marines, a community program that families choose because they already feel connected to Marine Corps identity. These two pathways look similar on the surface — uniforms, ranks, discipline — but they reach different communities, shape different identities, and reflect deep inequalities in how military influence spreads across the country. JROTC grows in schools serving Black and Latino youth. Young Marines grows in white suburban communities. Understanding why helps us understand how militarization works, and how youth can push back.

militarization

Youth militarization

JROTC

Forced placement in JROTC

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Our Manifesto: FIGHT FOR OUR FUTURE, NOT THEIR WARS!

Youth International Strike against war 2026

The world we are growing up in is shaped by a system that ignores people’s needs. The exploitation of workers, climate breakdown and war are not failures of the system but the essence of capitalism. The rise of militarization, authoritarianism and the dismantling of the welfare state are not separate problems but all symptoms of a crisis of global capitalism. Military spending is reaching historic highs while education, healthcare, housing and public services are sacrificed to finance rearmament. Programs such as ReArm Europe (which aims to invest 800 billion euros), the expansion of military alliances like NATO and growing calls for conscription are preparing our generation for war instead of guaranteeing our future. NATO does not defend peace; it has repeatedly advanced imperial interests through military intervention, escalation and the protection of geopolitical and economic power – and because of this should be dissolved. Western imperialism, spearheaded by the Trump administration in the US, is imposing rearmament plans that are fanatically applauded by the European ruling class and supported by conservative and far-right governments in Europe and around the world. But it is not just reactionary forces; this militaristic spiral has also found enthusiastic support among various social-democratic governments that have approved record military budgets.

Human Rights & Social Justice

Permanent War

Student Protests

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Changes in Selective Service (Edward Hasbrouck, 10 November 2026)

"Changes in Selective Service: Lessons from 45 years of draft registration and resistance for the next chapter in military conscription"

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We Are Not Your Soldiers – More Relevant Than Ever

We Are Not Your Soldiers looks forward to engaging in dialogue with many students in their classes and organizations during the fall and spring academic semesters of 2026/27. Scheduling is on now for class visits. Where possible we will be there in person but can always speak via remote technology as well. At this moment in our country, these presentations and the discussions around them are more relevant than ever. The forever wars not only continue but accelerate with no end in sight. Horrific destruction and suffering is being unleashed in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and the rest of Palestine along with piracy and further horrific actions in the Caribbean and Pacific. Treatment of the troops themselves has reached new lows. At the same time, conditions in this country worsen for much of the population, especially

We Are Not Your Soldiers

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Artificial Intelligence and Militarism

Just some short years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) seemed like a promising technology of tomorrow for most people. Mainstream conversations around AI developments were typically met with enthusiasm from lay people and tech professionals alike. Maybe AI can cure cancer! It can at least give me a funny picture to upload to my Instagram story! Only scattered murmurs warning of AI’s potential dangers were reported by conventional media outlets. That’s not true anymore. In September, former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxin appeared on virtually every legacy media broadcast to share a doomsday prediction: there is a 10% chance AI will extinguish the human race by the end of the decade. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reinforced Coxin’s perilous forecast by simultaneously issuing their own calls for caution just days later. Altman published “We Must Pace the Frontier,” an open letter urging for a deliberate pacing of AI development to ensure public safety. Altman declared that AI could go “very badly” if the technology develops too quickly without proper protections.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

COMD

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Counter-Recruitment from an Ethnic Studies Perspective

Lt. Col. Kourtney Logan and Maj. Martina TaylorCampbell are members of the U.S. Army 6th Medical Recruiting Battalion

Military recruitment is often presented as a matter of individual choice, patriotism, and opportunity. Recruiters highlight pathways to education, job training, healthcare benefits, and career advancement. Yet ethnic studies scholars encourage a broader examination of recruitment practices, asking who is most heavily targeted, what social conditions shape enlistment decisions, and how military service fits within larger systems of power. From this perspective, counter-recruitment emerges not simply as an anti-war activity, but as an educational and social justice effort aimed at exposing the racialized, economic, and political structures that sustain militarism.

Counter Military Recruitment

Ethnic Studies

NNOMY Network

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La guerra por la paz 101

De los funcionarios que dirigían el Distrito Escolar de Erie, Laurie Quiggle fue la que presentó la solicitud más modesta en 1986. En nombre de la libertad de expresión y de ampliar las opciones educativas de los estudiantes, incluyendo a sus cinco hijos, ¿podría proporcionar información a las cuatro escuelas secundarias públicas de la ciudad para contrarrestar el acceso desmedido de los militares a los jóvenes? ¿Por qué no publicar información sobre la objeción de conciencia al reclutamiento militar y sobre oportunidades profesionales no militares?

Divergent Paths to Peace: A.N.S.W.E.R., Counter-Recruitment Activism, and the Struggle for Direction in the Post-9/11 Antiwar Movement

The years following September 11, 2001 produced one of the largest antiwar mobilizations in modern United States history. Millions of people entered the peace movement during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, joining coalitions that brought together religious organizations, labor activists, students, veterans, military families, civil rights advocates, educators, and community organizers. Yet beneath the appearance of unity existed profound disagreements about strategy, leadership, political analysis, and movement priorities. Among the most prominent organizations shaping this era was A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), whose influence on national antiwar mobilizations was considerable, but whose approach often generated tension with groups pursuing different visions of peace organizing.

Counter‑recruitment

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Students Against the War Machine: A History of the Campus Antiwar Network and the 2006 Antiwar Landscape

Founded in January 2003 on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Campus Antiwar Network emerged as a prominent, student-led grassroots coalition. Built as a decentralized network of high school and college chapters across the United States, the organization operated on democratic principles that demanded the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, self-determination for the Iraqi people, an end to military recruitment on campuses, and the protection of student free speech.

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Chelsea Uniting Against the War’s Ongoing Anti-Military Recruitment Campaign with Youth

(Members of Chelsea Uniting Against the War met with Chelsea High School students about their right to OPT-OUT during their lunch periods on 9/14/26.

September 14, 2026 / Fran Roznowski / Chelsea Uniting Against the War - Members of Chelsea Uniting Against the War spoke with students about their right to OPT-OUT during their lunch periods at Chelsea High School on September 14, 2026. Many students reported that they already signed the Military Release OPT-OUT Form online in the Student Handbook which prevents the Chelsea school district from releasing these student’s names, addresses and phone numbers to armed forces recruiters. One student interrupted his lunch to sign the form on his school issued computer.

Chelsea Uniting Against the War (CUAW)

Counter‑recruitment

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Join the movement to stop war where it begins:

Organizing against militarism in US schools to end permanent war.

Get involved today.