From the Muslimization of Western Europe to the impact of HIV/AIDS around the planet, from the trials of the coming post-petroleum world to the tactical implications of an ice-free Arctic, the nations of Earth are facing more radical change than ever before in the first quarter of the 21st century.

This important government report-from the United States NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL, which has been producing assessments of national security issues for senior U.S. policy makers since 1979-casts a strategic eye at the near future and examines those factors and trends that will most dramatically shape it:

¿ the rapidly globalizing economy
¿ the growing global middle class
¿ the challenges of aging populations
¿ migration, urbanization, and ethnic shifts
¿ the rising heavyweights: India and China
¿ the geopolitics of energy, water, food and climate change
¿ the risk of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East
¿ terrorism
¿ power-sharing in a multipolar world
¿ and more.

Students of political trends, forward-looking entrepreneurs, and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades will find this essential reading.