Future Trends — Extreme Poverty, Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
Introducing another week of Future Trends on Oct. 14, 2020 – tracking current global news stories that provide insight into the future. This week: extreme poverty’s changing face, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict displaces thousands, EU invests in Balkans, and Japanese delivery robots. CONTINUING
COVID-19 highlights economic sovereignty in countries
A plunge in international trade during the pandemic has shown how some countries may benefit from already high levels of economic sovereignty. The pandemic has highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of relying on international trade versus fostering economic sovereignty. Economic sovereignty gauges
Ecological Threats, Conflict and Displacement Crises in Syria
The ETR finds that ecological threats in Syria have exacerbated existing social tensions and fragilities. Using IEP’s Positive Peace Index (PPI), the Ecological Threat Register (ETR) analyses the relationship between countries with high ecological threats and low levels of resilience to
Future Trends – Climate Refugees, Libya Protests, Israel Lockdown
Introducing another week of Future Trends — tracking current global news stories that provide insight into the future. This week's Future Trends: Libya protests, climate refugees, floating vegetable gardens, Israel lockdown and life on Venus. CONFLICT Islamic extremists suspected in the death of
Least Peaceful Countries Have The Most Ecological Threats
The ETR measures ecological threats that countries are currently facing and provides projections to 2050. This is the inaugural edition of the Ecological Threat Register (ETR), which covers 157 independent states and territories. The ETR measures ecological threats that countries are
COVID-19, Conflict and Ecological Threats in Yemen
The COVID-19 pandemic will intensify the impacts of ongoing conflict and ecological threats in Yemen. Yemen is considered an ecological hotspot, facing high exposure to all three resource depletion indicators measured in the Ecological Threat Register (ETR) – water stress, food
Future Trends: Cheap Money, Cryptocurrency Mining, Border Clashes
While Covid-19 delivers a painful economic downturn, these are the latest trends in global economics, politics, social dynamics, conflict and development. Economics Three biggest US banks set aside $28bn in downturn warning. The projected 11% unemployment rate for the end of the year, hits
Post-Pandemic Recovery Planning and The ‘Efficiency’ Trap
Is it time to think less ‘just-in-time’ and more ‘just-in-case’? In a recent public seminar – held online due to social distancing and lockdowns – IEP suggested the COVID-19 crisis appeared to be ‘exogenous.’ That is, it did not originate from
The COVID-19 Pandemic and the impact on violence
The pandemic will shift patterns of violence throughout the globe. While there has been a decline in some types of crime, battle deaths and riots due to lock-down measures, other areas such as domestic violence, self-harm and suicide are likely to
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Socio-Economic Development
Why did the COVID-19 pandemic spread so quickly among the most developed nations in the world? The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most disruptive infection outbreak of the 21st century. The pandemic started in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and by early
How black markets have adapted to – and shaped – the COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 crisis has affected many aspects of society, but perhaps none in such a complex and poorly understood way as in black markets, from booming sales of fake medicines and guns in the U.S. to rising illicit export of
Global Peace Index 2020
Global peacefulness has deteriorated over the past year, with this being the fourth time in the last five years that the world has seen a fall in peacefulness. The results this year show that the level of global peacefulness deteriorated, with