Professor J. Marshall Beier

Profile

J. Marshall Beier is Professor of Political Science at McMaster University. In his current research, he investigates intersections of childhoods and militarism, issues of children’s rights and political subjecthood across various settings, visual and affective economies of children in abject circumstances, and imagined childhood as a technology of global governance. He is active with and serves on the Faculty Advisory Committee of the McMaster Children and Youth University and carries out research on other such programs.

Research

Publications

J. Marshall Beier and Jana Tabak. 2025. “Children, Childhoods, and Security Studies: Taking Stock and Thinking Forward.” Critical Studies on Security 13(2): 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2025.2502715

J. Marshall Beier. 2025. “Childhood,” in Beate Jahn and Sebastian Schindler, eds., Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 40-41.

J. Marshall Beier. 2024. “Not the Usual Suspects: Making Child Soldiers in the Gunsight.” Civil Wars 26(4): 676-694. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249.2024.2306594

J. Marshall Beier and Helen Berents, eds. 2023. Children, Childhoods and Global Politics. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

J. Marshall Beier. 2022. "'This Changes Things': Children, Targeting, and the Making of Precision." Cooperation and Conflict 57(2): 210-225. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00108367211050274

J. Marshall Beier. 2022. “Governing Conflict through Childhood.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 23(1): 52-58. https://doi.org/10.1353/gia.2022.0009

J. Marshall Beier. 2021. "Exceptional Childhood and COVID-19: Engaging Children in a Time of Civil Emergency." Childhood: Journal of Global Child Research 28(1): 154-169. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0907568220977629

J. Marshall Beier and Jana Tabak, eds. 2021. Childhoods in Peace and Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

J. Marshall Beier and Jana Tabak. 2020. "Children, Childhoods, and Everyday Militarisms." Childhood: Journal of Global Child Research 27(3): 281-293. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0907568220923902

J. Marshall Beier and Sandeep Raha. 2020. "Cultivating an Ethos: Collegial Co-Discovery in a Children and Youth University." Children's Geographies 18(1): 44-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2019.1584270

J. Marshall Beier, ed. 2020. Discovering Childhood in International Relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

J. Marshall Beier. 2019. "Implementing Children's Right to be Heard: Local Attenuations of a Global Commitment." Journal of Human Rights 18(2): 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2018.1515620

J. Marshall Beier. 2019. "Binding Gestures: A Customary Norm Regarding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?" Children's Geographies 17(3): 309-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1495315

J. Marshall Beier. 2018. "Ultimate Tests: Children, Rights, and the Politics of Protection." Global Responsibility to Protect 10(1-2): 164-187. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875984X-01001009

J. Marshall Beier, ed. 2017. Childhood and the Production of Security. London: Routledge.

J. Marshall Beier. 2015. "Shifting the Burden: Childhoods, Resilience, Subjecthood." Critical Studies on Security 3(3): 237-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2015.1114459

J. Marshall Beier. 2015. "Children, Childhoods, and Security Studies: An Introduction." Critical Studies on Security 3(1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2015.1019715

J. Marshall Beier, ed. 2011. The Militarization of Childhood:Thinking Beyond the Global South. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Expertise