Professional Affiliation

Virginia E. and John T. Hazel Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University; Wilson Center Fellow

Expert Bio

Jack A. Goldstone (PhD. Harvard) is Hazel Professor of Public Policy and a Fellow of the Mercatus Center of George Mason University. He is the author of Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World (winner of the 1993 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award of the American Sociological Association), editor of Political Demography, and has authored or edited ten additional books and over 140 book chapters and journal articles on various aspects of population, political conflict and social change.   Winner of the Barrington Moore and Arnoldo Momigliano awards for scholarship, he has chaired a National Academy of Sciences study of USAID democracy assistance, and worked with the OECD and the U.S. State and Defense Departments on their strategies for fragile states.  Goldstone blogs regularly on revolutions and world affairs at http://NewPopulationBomb.wordpress.com

Project Summary

The project will analyze the consequences of rapid aging in the rich countries, runaway growth in Africa, urbanization and the growth of megacities, and the rise of a global middle class. These global population changes are leading humanity to previously unknown situations: countries where half of all adults are 60 or older; countries at peace with rapidly declining populations; middle-income countries with women still having 5-6 children per family; and poor countries that are nonetheless heavily urbanized. Innovative solutions will be needed to address these problems: ending retirement as we know it; making education of women through high-school (not just literacy) a global priority; innovating to reduce the energy and environmental impact of megacities; and developing global rules to govern the rights of migrants and the responsibilities of immigrant countries. The challenges posed by these changes are immense; yet with the right policy responses, even a world of 10 billion can be more stable and prosperous than we have been at any time in history.

Major Publications

Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford U Press 2014)

Political Demography: How Population Changes are Reshaping International Security and National Politics (Oxford U Press 2012)

"The New Population Bomb" Foreign Affairs, January 2010

Previous Terms

Public Policy Fellow, Sept 2014-Dec. 2015: "10 Billion: The Challenges of Global Population Change for Democracy, Security, and Prosperity in the 21st Century"