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Population, warfare, & terrorism

The military budgets of the industrialized western nations are equivalent to the total income of the poorest two billion of the world’s population. The land set aside for military training and other purposes is equivalent in area to Turkey. Many military activities, especially manufacturing nuclear weapons, are environmentally damaging. Clearly, wars and terrorism are major challenges to the global environment and human development.

Nearly every presidential administration since the 1950s has recognized the close link between fast growing populations and terrorism. In 1974, the National Security Council noted that rapid population growth opens “the way to extremist regimes.” A task force on terrorism chaired by then Vice-President George Bush emphasized that “[f]ully 60 percent of the Third World population is under 20 years of age, [creating] a volatile mixture of youthful aspirations that, when coupled with economic and political frustrations, help form a large pool of potential terrorists.” The National Academies text Discouraging Terrorism: Some Implications of 9/11 states that “many societies that foster terrorism are characterized by high population growth and large numbers of disadvantaged youth and by extreme poverty and inequality.” The 9/11 Commission Report was most explicit of all, describing “a large, steadily increasing population of young men without any reasonable expectation of suitable a steady employment – as sure prescription for social turbulence.”