Katherine Golden, AC Intel Anchor

Crystal balls for global affairs don’t exist, but we’ve got the next best thing.

Today, we launched our latest edition of Global Foresight, which gathers findings from our annual survey of geostrategists and foresight practitioners on how they expect the world to change in the next decade.

Their outlook, in one word: gloomy.

That’s because, of the nearly 450 respondents from over 70 countries, 63 percent expect the world in 2036 to be worse off than it is now. Some of the shifts they foresee: China surpassing the United States as the world’s leading economic power and Russia’s war in Ukraine becoming a frozen fight. On top of that, the respondents foresee the world continuing to get hotter—leading to wars over access to fresh water within the decade.

With that aura of gloom overhead, we went to our experts for their insight on the survey results. Some offered solace: For example, former Bloomberg Businessweek China bureau chief Dexter Tiff Roberts explains that “China’s ascent to economic supremacy could easily be derailed by its limited progress in shifting from export-driven growth.” 

But others argued the dark mood was spot on. Your AC Intel starts there

WELCOME TO 2036

Read the fulll survey rsults