What Will Happen to the World in 2030: Forecast of the US Intelligence

The US National Intelligence Council prepares analytical and forecasting materials which respond to the changing world. The 5th and the last edition of «Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds» was published in January 2013. Since then we can more objectively assess its content and the feasibility. «Global Trends 2030» consist of three major sections, which have tried to predict the global development of the world and the various phenomena of modern life. The first chapter deals with the most important megatrends that will have a sharp impetus to the development in the next 20-25 years. In the second chapter the experts seek to identify the factors that will influence the transformation of the world: it is global economy prone to the crisis, the shortage of power (control), expanding the boundaries of regional instability, new technologies and the extent of US influence on solving of the world's problems. Serious attention is paid to the role of Russia as a key actor on the world stage, three possible options of the development of relations between Russia and China and the West are analyzed. In the final part of the study the authors have built four archetypes of the future (alternate worlds), which represent different ways of the development of the world by 2030.