A Global Security Brief written by Richard Cincotta, a senior research associate at Population Action International and co-author of The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict After the Cold War, posits that a "youth bulge" (a high proportion of 15-to-29 year olds relative to the adult population) can lead to high unemployment, which can facilitate recruitment into insurgent organizations and extremist networks or into militias and political gangs.

Cincotta argues that the following efforts could help mitigate the risks posed by the youth bulge and underemployment: