As a corollary to this: it's perhaps not surprising that the remaining conflict we do see is spearheaded by our increasingly aged heads of state, men and women who grew up in the shadow of WW2 and the peak of the Cold War.
Saddam Hussein was hardly a teenager when he invaded Kuwait, and Putin is no spring chicken. I don’t know what the answer is, but I suspect this guy doesn’t either.
It’s a shame though, since the collapse of the Soviet Union the share of the worlds population dying in warfare has collapsed. It was already on a strong downward trend after the end of WW2. Let’s hope Ukraine is an outlier.
Oman is a fairly developed country and they have twice as many kids per woman compared to poor Ukraine and almost-starving North Korea.
Cultural background is a huge influence in fertility. African immigrants in Europe have more children the poorer they are, the opposite of locals.
You’re right about the Haredi though. Congratulations, on a discussion of demographics across billions of people, you found one community of less than 2 million that buck the trend. Good for you.
Cultural background can have an influence, sure, but generally not enough to have a macro level effect. Hence the global trend.
I'm not sure a younger generation growing up without fear of nuclear war is a safer thing. I suspect that most of the current heads of state being old and belligerant is correlation rather than causation.
Don't worry, there will be inexpensive automated drones to do the killing soon enough.
Putin was a child during the missile crisis, but he cut his teeth in the KGB of the 70s and 80s. His mentors and leaders were, in all likelihood, veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
(To be clear: I don't think that the risk of war ends with the deaths of these particular generations of leaders. But I do think we're seeing a particularly outmoded approach to war at the moment.)
It will still be older people calling the shots, since they have had time to accumulate power and rise in the ranks, but the risk of war increases with the elders of future generations because they have no direct experience or cultural memory of its horrors; "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."