How have dramatically falling birthrates driven Putin’s War in Ukraine? What role do they play in today’s anti-immigrant populism in Europe and in the United States? How do they shape the conflicts around identity politics? These will be the central questions in an event organized by WZB Berlin Social Science Center in cooperation with the American Academy in Berlin on April 14, 2026.

Stephen Holmes, Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law at New York University and currently Richard C. Holbrooke Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, will present insights from his ongoing book project “Demography, Identity, and Putin’s War” and will show how demographic panic shapes political conflict and violence, migration debates and the resurgence of identity politics in both domestic and international contexts. He will be joined by Michaela Kreyenfeld, Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School in Berlin, whose research focuses on demographic change, family dynamics, and social inequality, and by WZB President Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, who has worked on questions of international labor markets and the impact of demographic changes on economic growth.
Please register by April 12 using this link: https://events.wzb.eu/demography/