The consequences of large-scale sex-selection abortion in Asia? Greater chances for war?

The reasons for the persistence of offspring sex selection, and the exact numbers of pregnancies involved, have been hotly debated since the early 1990s, when the economist Amartya Sen called attention to the phenomenon of “missing women.” By some social scientists’ measure, more than 100 million females are now missing from the populations of India and China. Mr. Sen and others have argued that sex selection both reflects and reinforces women’s low social status, which — beyond its intrinsic cruelty — impedes the development of democracy and prosperity in male-skewed nations. Scholars and feminist organizations in both Asia and the West have produced many volumes of often conflicting advice about how to combat the practice.

Now two political scientists have joined the fray with an ominous argument: Offspring sex selection could soon lead to war.