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With Great Demographics Comes Great Power

July/August 2019 147

ing further into the future, however, population growth and rising levels

o education may propel new countries toward great-power status.

Demographics oer a clue to the geopolitical world o the future—

and how Washington should prepare for it. To maintain the United

States’ edge, American leaders must take steps to slow or reverse the

negative demographic trends now eating away at the foundations o

U.S. power. They must also begin to rethink Washington’s global

strategy, recognizing that the future o the U.S.-led international or-

der lies with the young and growing democracies o the developing

world. With wise domestic policy and farsighted diplomacy, U.S.

leaders can ensure that their country’s still considerable human re-

sources reinforce American power long into the coming century.

PEOPLE POWER

For premodern empires and kingdoms, a larger population meant

more people to tax and send o to war. But thanks to modern eco-

nomic development, demographics are more important now than ever

before. Since the Industrial Revolution, technological innovations

RUTH FREMSON

/ THE

NEW

YORK

TIMES

/ REDUX

Keep ’em coming: at a daycare center in New York City, May 2010

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