2014 – the next world crisis?

A cataclysmic "Great Event" is approaching which will occur in or around the year 2014 and determine the course of the rest of the 21st century, according to a startling new thesis published this week. The remarkable claim forms the central message in a new book, 2014 - How to survive the next world crisis, written by the University of Cambridge academic, Professor Nicholas Boyle. His study brings a lifetime's research in fields including politics, economics, philosophy, theology and literature to bear on the state of global politics and the causes, consequences and wider meaning of the present financial crisis. It warns that the economic collapse of 2007-2008 could mark only the start of a wider breakdown in international relations, and predicts that by the middle of the decade just dawned, the United States will find itself the key player in a series of make-or-break decisions about the future of the world. It adds, however, that the more peaceful alternative will only be realised if the international community can accept that nation states are no longer strong enough to deal with the world's problems and construct an effective system of global governance instead. "We are approaching a moment of decision, when the deeper issues that have begun to make themselves felt in recent years can no longer be postponed," Professor Boyle said. "By 2014, our legacy to the 21st century is likely to have been determined, for better or for worse." Those issues represent some of the major flashpoints of world politics; among them economic management, the emergence of new powers such as China and India, and the need for international co-operation on climate change.