Global Demographic Trends And U.s. National Security

Four trends of population distribution will occur in the first half of the 21st century: the gap in population density and age structure between developing regions and developed areas will be further widen. The Muslim population growth accelerated; the process of urbanization come to a new era, the global urban population will exceed the rural one; complexity of migration flows will increase. These new trends pose some potential threats on U.S. national security.This paper discusses this problem on three spects: the trend of population distribution may affect U.S. military security because it has changed the source and nature of world military strength and may cause turmoil in areas of youth bulges; the wealth of the world will transfer from the west to the east, which puts a great challenge to the USA's economy; more countries become confident in their traditional culture, making the spread of American belief difficult.In order to make the advantages that population distribution brings outweigh the disadvantages, the U.S. government needs to strengthen the monitoring of population and development projections, what's more, it should develop the cooperation with the international community.