5 predictions by the US’s top spies about what the world could look like in 20 years

Some of the scenarios are devastating, while others look like a future version of our current world.

From left to right: FBI Director Christopher Wray, NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns, and DIA Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier at a House hearing on worldwide threats on April 15, 2021. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Pool via Reuters

By Stavros Atlamazoglou

What will the world look like in 2040?

Peaceful coexistence between the US and China based on mutual economic benefit? A chaotic and divided world trying to recover from major natural disasters caused by climate change? Or a catastrophic World War III?

These are some of the questions the US Intelligence Community asks itself when it prepares one of the most important and interesting national security reports.

Global Trends

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden at a virtual global climate summit, in Moscow, on April 22, 2021. Photo: Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters

Published every four years since 1997, the Global Trends Report is the Intelligence Community’s overarching assessment of geopolitical trends. It aims to describe realistic scenarios that policymakers will face 20 years from now.

As the foreword of this year’s report, the seventh iteration, states, the goal of the Intelligence Community isn’t to say specifically what the world will look like in 2040 but rather to highlight issues and…