Large uneducated unemployed youth populations under corruption predict recent violent conflicts.

Evidence

Most of the recent violent conflicts are in countries with large youth populations that are uneducated, unemployed, and living in poverty under autocratic regimes that often are plagued with corruption (Leahy, 2007). … The age structure, intense competition for limited resources, and widespread social discontent makes young men ripe for recruitment for civil wars and terrorist activities. Large youth populations living under repressive, poverty-ridden conditions will continue to be a growing threat to international security. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2569

Categorization

• SEED: The youth-bulge-to-conflict pipeline could anchor an essay on demographic determinism and moral disengagement as a recruitment mechanism — Bandura’s own moral disengagement framework explains how terrorists are made from this pool.
• XREF: Links to the ‘youth bulge’ literature in political demography (Urdal, Huntington) and to theories of grievance-based insurgency.