We inhabit an increasingly interconnected world. Yet too often policymakers and advisers view each issue in a vacuum, focusing primarily on short-term impacts. All of us—policymakers, local and global communities, and individual citizens—must begin to consider how the major trends that shape our world are likely to develop and how they will intersect and influence one another.
This volume explores and discusses correlations between these global trends, or megatrends: global governance, demographic change and migration, energy and natural resources, global security, biodiversity, and economic globalization. The book’s primary focus is to provide a qualitative overview of the trends, and to analyze their intersections and interdependencies in the 21st century. It aims to help define some of the complex challenges and exciting opportunities shaping a world of sustainable economies and societies.
