Governance

The recently published “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds” report from the National Security Council makes for interesting reading, full of interesting tidbits of information—global GDP is $70 trillion—along with skyline projections out to 2030. Acknowledging the fact that the U.S.’ post-War II global governance paradigm is under strain from a mixture of globalization, domestic political inertia in developed economies resulting in a deficit of global leadership, and emerging powers that seek greater input on the global stage, the report is well worth the time to read. The fundamental question raised is what exactly does this mean for the United States in 2030, when it is possible, though not a forlorn conclusion, that China’s economy will be number one.

It's 2013. We've made it. For those of us watching from the United States, the last few days of 2012 (to say nothing of the first couple of this year) were touch and go. But here we are.

Political risk has entered our vocabulary. Whether staring over the fiscal cliff, battling the eurozone crisis, trying to profit from a rising China, or taking cover from the Middle East; around the world, politics has come to dominate market outcomes. Geoeconomics now sits alongside geopolitics in matters of war, peace, and prosperity. Economic statecraft is a key component of global foreign policy. State capitalism is a principal challenge to the free market.

With incarceration rates in the U.S. now reaching epidemic levels, I would like to take you through the exercise of envisioning a world where prisons are no longer an option. If judges no longer had ‘incarceration’ as a setting on their gavel of justice, what kind of world would we live in? Here are a few thoughts.

The year is 2018 and the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the organization charged with selecting the winner of the famous Nobel Peace Prize, has changed their process. They’ve decided to host a global election to allow the people of the world to decide which of the candidates is the most deserving.

A United Nations summit has adopted confidential recommendations proposed by China that will help network providers target BitTorrent uploaders, detect trading of copyrighted MP3 files, and, critics say, accelerate Internet censorship in repressive nations. Approval by the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union came despite objections from Germany, which warned the organization must “not standardize any technical means that would increase the exercise of control over telecommunications content, could be used to empower any censorship of content, or could impede the free flow of information and ideas.”

The BBC reports: The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) will study dangers posed by biotechnology, artificial life, nanotechnology and climate change. The scientists said that to dismiss concerns of a potential robot uprising would be "dangerous".