Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds

This report is intended to stimulate thinking about the rapid and vast geopolitical changes characterizing the world today and possible global trajectories during the next 15-20 years. As with the NIC's previous Global Trends reports, we do not seek to predict the future--which would be an impossible feat--but instead provide a framework for thinking about possible futures and their implications.

" . . . the idea of the future being different from the present is so repugnant to our conventional modes of thought and behavior that we, most of us, offer a great resistance to acting on it in practice."
John Maynard Keynes, 1937

Diffusion of Power
There will not be any hegemonic power. Power will shift to networks and coalitions in a multipolar world.

Demographic Patterns
The demographic arc of instability will narrow. economic growth might decline in "aging" countries. sixty percent of the world's population will live in urbanized areas; migration will increase

Food, Water, Energy Nexus
Demand for these resources will grow substantially owing to an increase in the global population. tackling problems pertaining to one commodity will be linked to supply and demand for the others.