U.S. intelligence report: Climate change, rich-poor gap, conflict likely to grow

A U.S. Intelligence report on Thursday spoke about the challenges that disease, climate change, the gap between rich and poor, not to mention the conflicts within and among nations will pose in coming decades.

Speaking of the rivalry between China and the U.S. led a coalition of Western nations, the Global Trends 2040 produced by the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) said that the rivalry would likely intensify, fuelled by military power shifts, demographics, technology and “hardening divisions over governance models”.

With regional powers and non-state actors exerting greater influence, a volatile, conflict-prone geopolitical environment stemming from this was likely to result in weakened international cooperation.

The report covered the challenges of climate change, disease, financial crises and technological disruption that would be likely “to manifest more frequently and intensely in almost every region and country,” producing “widespread strains on states and societies as well as shocks that could be catastrophic.”

The report is by top U.S. intelligence analysts and is produced every four years. It assesses the political, economic, societal and other trends that likely will shape the national security environment in the next 20 years.

The report posed five scenarios for what the world might look like in 2040 forecasting that many problems caused by the pandemic will grow by 2040.