A new Global Trends report by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), Washington's main intelligence body, paints a bleak picture of the EU in 2025 with internal bickering, economic pressure and crime hobbling the bloc. Europe will have completed its institutional reforms by 2025, but will remain weak on the world stage while the economic and political clout of the United States will decline, the spread of nuclear weapons and cyber-terrorism will emerge as the most potent global threats, and new wars are likely to be fought over water and food scarcity. This is the bleak assessment of the NIC's 120-page "Global Trends 2025" report released on Thursday, Nov. 20. The report takes a long-term view of how key issues are likely to develop over the next few years. According to the report, the European Union will be a "hobbled giant" crippled by internal bickering and a euroskeptic citizenry by 2025.
Europe will have completed its institutional reforms by 2025, but will remain weak on the world stage while the economic and political clout of the United States will decline, the spread of nuclear weapons and cyber-terrorism will emerge as the most potent global threats, and new wars are likely to be fought over water and food scarcity.
This is the bleak assessment of the NIC's 120-page "Global Trends 2025" report released on Thursday, Nov. 20. The report takes a long-term view of how key issues are likely to develop over the next few years.
According to the report, the European Union will be a "hobbled giant" crippled by internal bickering and a euroskeptic citizenry by 2025.
2020 Although the challenges ahead will be daunting, the United States will retain enormous advantages, playing a pivotal role across the broad range of issues - economic, technological, political, and military - that no other state will match by 2020. (...) The US economy will become more vulnerable to fluctuations in the fortunes of others as global commercial networking deepens. US dependence on foreign oil supplies also makes it more vulnerable as the competition for secure access grows and the risks of supply side disruptions increase.
Although the challenges ahead will be daunting, the United States will retain enormous advantages, playing a pivotal role across the broad range of issues - economic, technological, political, and military - that no other state will match by 2020.
(...)
The US economy will become more vulnerable to fluctuations in the fortunes of others as global commercial networking deepens. US dependence on foreign oil supplies also makes it more vulnerable as the competition for secure access grows and the risks of supply side disruptions increase.
But it's a useful clue to the inner mood of the Beltway and its simmering pot of fears and prejudices.
The answer to that question is easy: Euchina Ce n'est pas un chef d'État européen qui unira l'Europe. Ce sont les Chinois. (de Gaulle?)
