Demography and international relations: Economics, politics, sociology, and conflict

Abstract

This chapter argues that looking at politics and particularly IR through a demographic prism allows for the analysis of the fundamental structures of society. Kugler links demographic structures and changes to key dynamics in IR in ways unaccounted for in standard International Political Economy and economic models. In particular, he reveals links to national economic growth and instability; the rise and fall of regions; and civil war. Demographic dynamics are also directly connected to unrest that generates democratic movements or conflicts as observable throughout the Middle East and much of sub-Saharan Africa.