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Global Trends to 2030 Challenges and Choices for Europe

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Global Trends to 2030 Challenges and Choices for Europe GLOBAL TRENDS TO 2030 CHALLENGES AND CHOICES FOR EUROPE AN INTER-INSTITUTIONAL April 2019 EU PROJECT Florence Gaub Florence Gaub is the Deputy Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and is the lead author of this ESPAS report Global Trends to 2030: Challenges and Choices for Europe. In addition to overseeing the EUISS' research activities, Florence works on strategic foresight, geopolitics as well as the Middle East and North Africa. Florence is widely published, and her two latest publications include The Cauldron: NATO’s Libya campaign and Guardians of the Arab State: Why militaries intervene in politics. Previously employed at NATO Defence College, she was educated at Munich University, SciencesPo, the Sorbonne, and holds a PhD from Humboldt University Berlin. 2 GLOBAL TRENDS TO 2030 CHALLENGES AND CHOICES FOR EUROPE TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword: the future is now 2 Introduction: between prediction and foresight 4 Welcome to 2030: the mega-trends 7 We are hotter 8 We are more, but where? 9 We live in cities 12 We continue to grow economically 13 We need more energy 17 We are highly connected 18 We are poly-nodal 19 On the road to the future: the catalysts 22 Trade will increase 23 Food and water will have to be watched 24 Warfare will change 25 Terrorism will remain 27 Technology will sprint ahead 28 People will move 29 Populists will try 31 Time to decide: the game-changers 33 How do we save the planet? 34 How do we improve ageing? 35 How do we manage new technologies? 35 How do we position Europe in the World? 36 How do we manage conflict? 36 How do we protect democracy at home? 37 How do we reach equality? 37 Action and inaction: two scenarios for 2030 39 If we take action 40 If we do not take action 41 Conclusion: foresight does not replace the future 42 1 FOREWORD THE FUTURE IS NOW by Ann Mettler, Chair, ESPAS he next decade will be defining for the The future is now, and tomorrow’s future of Europe and Europe’s role in challenges (and opportunities) are the world. Seismic global power shifts; determined by today’s choices. But the future Tpressure on liberal democracies; challenges is not what it used to be. The world is far more to global governance; the transformation complex, contested and competitive than of economic models and the very fabric of before – and is changing at unprecedented societies; new uses and misuses of technology; pace. The interconnected and interdependent contrasting demographic patterns; and nature of national, European and global affairs humanity’s growing ecological footprint has put a new premium on agile policy- and – the world is well on its way towards a decision-making, resilience, strategic foresight, new geopolitical, geo-economic and geo- and anticipatory governance – all of which are technological order. What role will Europe more important now than ever before. Despite play in this fast-changing world? How can the being more necessary and urgent, developing European Union ensure that it does not end up a ‘culture of preparedness’ and proactively a middle power, caught between the United shaping the future has also become more States and China? What will it take for Europe to difficult and testing. hold its destiny in its own hands in 2030? 2 GLOBAL TRENDS TO 2030 CHALLENGES AND CHOICES FOR EUROPE » Connectivity is the new geopolitics: If, in TOWARDS A CULTURE 2005, there were around one billion Internet OF PREPAREDNESS AND users worldwide, today that number stands ANTICIPATION at almost four billion and rising. At the same time, the number of connected devices is Against this backdrop, the ESPAS Global Trends increasing exponentially, powered by the to 2030: Challenges and Choices for Europe fast-growing Internet of Things and the Fourth report is a contribution to support policy- and Industrial Revolution. Indeed, ‘connectivity’ decision-makers as they navigate the world into is becoming a forceful expression of political 2030. We may not be able to provide a linear, pre- power and global ambition, far surpassing mere determined chart – from port of departure to port economics. of arrival. But what we can do is extrapolate insights from current global trends; explore some of the key STRONG EUROPE, uncertainties that will shape Europe’s future; and better anticipate some of the choices and decisions BETTER WORLD that might confront us in the coming decade. With these profound changes underway, it may seem easy to dismiss Europe, as too small and too Without purporting to be all-encompassing, insignificant to really make a difference, but that this report seeks to pull together available would be a grave mistake. Not only does Europe evidence for what one may well call a European need Europe, but the world needs Europe reality-check. Europe is a key global player in – as an inspiration for a better future; a many areas, but the world is no longer Eurocentric as well sound balance between economic, social and – nor will it be so in the future. Europeans will environmental objectives; a beacon of democracy, be fewer, older, and relatively poorer while diversity and freedom; and a true champion much of the rest of the world is rising. Even of multilateral solutions and collaborative if European Union Member States pool more approaches in a world increasingly dominated by resources together, Europe will remain outspent nationalism and zero-sum politics. Europe is still on security and defence. And as global power is a normative superpower, the place that sets the being redefined by rapid technological progress, global gold standard when it comes to human- Europeans lag behind China and the United States centric technology and digital rights, to regulation on emerging technologies and innovations – from and consumer welfare, to social protection and Artificial Intelligence to quantum computing. inclusive societies. These are facts and they matter. As Florence Gaub – the leading author of this And, if there is any doubt about how much the report – puts it, , it is world will change over the next 10 years, here foresight is a call to action about human agency and the choices we make. are just some of the facts that point to profound Europeans have two alternatives: to be largely change on the horizon: idle bystanders of a future that will be shaped by » The world is becoming less free: If, until 2005, others, or to shape that future themselves. The democracies and freedoms were expanding answer seems to be clear, but it is far from certain around the world, today they are in decline – a that Europeans will act jointly and decisively to trend that has played out unabated in the last confront challenges and seize opportunities. If 13 years; this report makes one point unabashedly clear, it is that even the largest EU Member States » Global power is shifting: If, today, of the cannot hope to achieve much on their own in this world’s eight largest economies, four are complex, contested and competitive world. Global European (including the United Kingdom), trends are shaped by global powers, and 2030 is by 2030, that number will be down to three right around the corner. The choice is ours, and (including the United Kingdom) and by 2050, ours alone. only Germany is set to remain. » The world economy is turning East: If, in 2005, the size of the European economy (at current market prices) was more than six times larger than China’s, today, China has all but caught up, with an economy worth 11.4 trillion euro, against 15.9 trillion for the EU 28 or 13.5 trillion for the EU 27; 3 INTRODUCTION: BETWEEN PREDICTION AND FORESIGHT 4 GLOBAL TRENDS TO 2030 CHALLENGES AND CHOICES FOR EUROPE or something as unknown as the future, of predicting the future (and being consistently it appears to have become surprisingly wrong about it, some say). Prediction, like predictable. A Google search of ‘future 2030’ pessimism, is deterministic and static. Instead, Fyields more than 97 million results, all more or less foresight is an intellectual exercise where we claiming similar things: that 2030 will see a more imagine different alternatives of the future – and connected, yet fragmented world, with hazardous tracing how we end up there. This is because shifts in demography and energy, and dangerous whenever humans ponder the question of the changes in technology, environment, and politics. future, they do so not merely to predict it, but, more importantly, to shape it. Indeed, the future The future, while overall negative, appears to be a is not just an idea of an upcoming state of the rather certain place. world – it always includes a method through which this idea can come about.5 Therefore, This illusion of definitiveness is created by two foresight is to the future what memory is to the dynamics: first, the pessimistic tone that runs past: an organising yet selective principle creating through the vast majority of foresight reports. order in complexity. Just as memories, the future This is a common feature when it comes to future is therefore a discussion space where meaning thinking, with one study showing that all studies is created, not an (un)predictable set of events.6 undertaken on the future over the last 70 years Consequently, foresight is never about one future, have one thing in common; pessimism.1 The but about different possible futures. reason for this is simple: although both optimism and pessimism are natural human dispositions, the latter is more prevalent by far. Humans Foresight is much more are, genetically speaking, biased towards the about shaping the future than negative – some studies even indicate that this is particularly the case for Europeans.2 Second, predicting it.
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