Intelligence Future-Gazers Look at 2020

[Rose Siding]

LANGLEY, Va. -- And now, a look into the future: al-Qaida, out; murky and scattered new terror cells, in. Hollywood, out; India's "Bollywood" in. America as sole superpower, out; China and India as world players, in.

At least, that's what U.S. intelligence future-gazers predicted Thursday.

"How we mentally map the world of 2020 will change radically," said the National Intelligence Council Chairman Robert Hutchings at the release of his panel's new report, Project 2020. Newly arriving powers "have the potential to render obsolete the old categories of East and West, North and South."

The unclassified forecasts offer a range of scenarios about the world 15 years out. Officials caution they are not meant to be predictions certain to come true but rather long-term outlooks designed to stimulate debate at the start of a new administration, in the works months before President Bush won.

The council predicts an emergence of new global players -- almost certainly China and India -- but whether these new players fit into the world cooperatively or competitively remains an important uncertainty for the United States.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-predicting-the-future,0,653579.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[NEOBuckeye]

1. Renewables IN, Fossil Fuels OUT

If you understand this, then you understand why the United States, if it even still exists, will be a very different place in 2020.