"Youth Bulge" And China's Public Diplomacy Strategy Apolitical Demography View

Youth Bulge refers to the ongoing trend of increasing population and unemployment rate of young people in over 100 countries,especially in Middle East,Northern Africa and Southeast Asia.The concept was originally put forward in 1990s by German sociologist Gunnar Heinsohn of the University Bremen.Heinsohn argued that one of the reasons of the expansion of European empires after 1500 is male youth bulge,and if the number of those aging from 15 to 29 accounts more than 30%of a country's total population,social conflicts,even violence will thus emerge.In 2011,the self-immolation of a Tunisian young people resulted in the break-out of "Arab Spring",this event has relit people's interests in researching the phenomenon of youth bulge.As a concept of political demography,youth bulge has great impact on national security.So how to understand the emergence and development of youth bulge from the perspective of political demography?How to understand the impact it makes to national security?And what adjustments should China's diplomatic strategy make to it?All these questions are of both realistic and academic importance.This thesis would respond to all these questions by focusing on the trend and the theory behind youth bulge through qualitative analysis and case study.This thesis would be divided into six parts.The preface introduces the concept of youth bulge and then discusses the hypothesis,research methods,current research and theoretical framework.The first chapter outlines the status-quo of youth bulge from a macro perspective and the global problems such as,over-political engagement,political violence and development crisis caused by youth bulge.And then,it clears that youth bulge mostly appears in developing countries of Asia,Africa and Latin-America,and strikes the current international system.The second chapter introduces the political demography basis of youth bulge,and discusses the theoretical relations between youth bulge and national security.It goes on to analyze the reasons of political violence and security dilemma caused by youth bulge.The third chapter explains the theories of public diplomacy and asserts the theoretical connections between youth bulge and public diplomacy,and figures out that constructing international mechanism and improving level of political institutionalization through public diplomacy are the keys to positive effect of youth bulge.Meanwhile,it describes cases of youth public diplomacy of the US,the UK and Japan,demonstrating the feasibility of solving youth bulge problems through public diplomacy strategies.The fourth chapter describes China's current diplomatic dilemma and then put forward the possible ways for China to implement youth public diplomacy strategies on the basis of previous chapters.Finally,the summary concludes that one of the main approaches to relieve the youth bulge crisis is youth public diplomacy.Through constructing youth public diplomacy institutions,improving the level of institutionalization,the systematic pressure of youth bulge to relevant countries,areas and even the international system can be decreased.In this process,some areas like Middle East and North America,and South-east Asia should be especially focused.For China,all the efforts being made shall lead to the protection and strengthen of national interests and security.