ABSTRACT
The interactions between rapid demographic growth in poor countries and their external relations have been the subject of extremely varied and even contradictory analysis, particularly when presented in the form of models. The opposition between the conclusions of the various demo-economic models concerning the foreign economic relations of countries with rapid demographic growth is explained not by simple differences in the quantitative estimation of the parameters but by qualitative differences between the structures of the different models. As the different models of interactions between rapid demographic growth and international economic relations have hardly been confronted among themselves, they have seldom been confronted with reality in order to compare their respective relevance. International relations (e.g., between Asia and Africa) can be explained both through the disparities between the Asian and African economic dynamics as well as through the disparities in their demographic growth.
