Preface

Saying that the world is changing fast has become part of the conventional wisdom. Changes affecting us are not only faster, but more difficult to predict, and of greater economic and political significance. From the economy to politics, and from culture to the environment, the global situation created during the first decade of the twenty-first century is drastically different from the one inherited from the twentieth century. We are overwhelmed by the systemic interactions among economic, business, political, social, demographic, environmental, and geopolitical variables. We are concerned about the consequences of these changes and eager to find new ways of framing and solving the problems they have brought us.

We decided to write this book so as to better understand ourselves the nature and consequences of large-scale changes and to help others understand them. We are interested not just in trends and events but in turning points, that is, veritable game changers, inflexions that have transformed human societies as we knew them. The rise of the emerging economies, population aging, urbanization, governmental gridlock and the breakdown of state authority, deepening inequalities, environmental degradation, and the reconfiguration of global power relationships have created a new set of constraints and opportunities that will shape the world for decades to come.