Counter-Recruitment from an Ethnic Studies Perspective
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.
