Category Archives: International Relations

There are plenty of things that we can predict with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

The world’s population will inevitably hit the 7 billion mark by the end of the year, and is likely to peter out at 9 billion by 2050.

This year the developing world, spearheaded by China, India and Brazil, will grow four times as fast as the rich world, and China is on track to become the worlds largest economy by 2050.

2050 will also see global temperatures to have already risen by about 2 degrees, an amount that may seem negligible until you consider that the current global temperature is only 5 degrees warmer than the last ice age.

And yet, as I leafed through the Economist’s predictions for the “world in 2011” with the aim of getting clued up on the art of crystal gazing, I found no mention of the most significant event of the year so far – that being the political upheaval that is continuing to sweep across the Middle East and North Africa with tremendous consequences. Continue reading →