 Strategic Trends goes considerably further than comparable military documents, in its wide-ranging analysis of the future of civil society, of international relations, demographics and issues of cultural identity, religion and politics. The authors have clearly been instructed to leave no possibility untouched.
Some readers may not find it that difficult to imagine a future in which a selfish younger generation of Europeans supports euthanasia in order to reduce the costs of an ageing population. But what about the possibility that dictators of the future will be able to "buy longevity" by taking "'age-mitigation" or even "age-reversing" drugs in order to prolong
their regimes?
Or the prospect of a future world order unravelling in the face of "terrorism,
insurgency, serious criminality and disorder" in which "rejectionist, anarchist and nihilist groups" make common cause with Islamist terrorists to create global "flashmobs" and a "terrorist coalition of the willing"?
One of the most original ideas in Strategic |
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| Imagine a future in which young people vote to reduce the costs of an ageing population by means of euthansia |
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Trends is that the middle class, faced with declining living standards, will come to play the revolutionary role once occupied by Marx's proletariat. Needless to say, this combination of internal unrest and civil disorder will require "strong governance", including the increased use of surveillance and conventional and unconventional military force.
For anyone who believes in an international human society based on the 19th century dream of material improvement and progress, this document makes depressing reading.
Fortunately all is not lost. As Admiral Parry reminds us, given the human tendency "to interfere with the scenery and to act and react in unforeseen, non-linear ways", these scenarios may not unfold.
We'd better hope so. The alternative is the dark future of the military imagination, in which Her Majesty's Armed Forces act as the blunt instrument of wealth and privilege in a world that has ceased to be fit for human beings to live in. 
FIRST POSTED APRIL 18 , 2007
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