“Freeze my Semen and I Will Join the War”: The Masculinization of the Security–Demography Nexus
Journal: International Political Sociology
Year: 2025

Abstract This article explores and theorizes an aspect of war in the 2020s that has not previously been recognized in social science literature: The practice of soldiers freezing their semen before joining the military. The security–demography nexus has been studied mainly as a state concern—whether a state should limit or expand its population depending on different factors. In this context, women have been the main targets of biopolitical reproduction efforts. However, societal and political s