A World of Extraordinary Dynamism
T he defence minister of Germany, a fervently peace-loving country for several decades and the one most tightly covered in the US protective cloak (Ramstein base and others), recently said that we must be ready for war in Europe. And he called for further modernisation of the Bundeswehr. The context is, of course, the bloody struggle between Russia and Ukraine, which not only according to politicians, but also according to experts, is only “ the first phase of a wider conflict between the West and a new axis of evil ” .
A few months earlier, senior US administration officials had openly admitted that rapid changes were taking place in the US military to take into account the risk of war – which is not inevitable, however – with China. One general even stopped short of ruling out that it may happen in 2025, at the same time expressing the hope that he was wrong.
When the latest conflict in Gaza exploded, there were widespread claims that it could become a hotbed of global turmoil of unprecedented proportions. A lot of effort has been put into ensuring that this is not the case, but the Middle East continues to be a globally relevant flashpoint.
Other problems are lurking in the background, which is not to say that their scale and importance are less. This year is set to be the warmest on record for the globe. For the first time, average temperatures were recorded in November of at least 2 degrees Celsius higher than in pre-industrial times. This means that the Rubicon has been crossed. Australia has assured that it will welcome all residents of Tuvalu, a tiny island state threatened by flooding. Other countries are building ever higher walls and barriers in the face of increasing migration.
Economic issues have been almost completely overshadowed (e.g. high inflation, expensive food, stubbornly failing supply chains, the crisis in China, etc.) as well as those related to artificial intelligence. Unofficial reports of Q-Star, a “terrifyingly intelligent” algorithm that has taught itself to solve mathematical tasks, must have struck fear into those who are concerned that AI will eventually turn against its creators.
While such reports may simply be clickbaits, the fact is that the symbolic doomsday clock says that we have record-breakingly little time left until midnight: just 1 min 30 s.
In the old-fashioned world of paper (although it does, of course, have its automated equivalent on the internet), “clickbait' does not work. Words are less ephemeral here and responsibility is greater. With this in mind, in Horizons 2024, a special edition of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, we ask about the future. It seems that we can be sure of one thing. There is a lot going on in the world right now. Unfortunately, there is no indication that this will slow down. At least for the time being. ©Ⓟ
Materiał chroniony prawem autorskim - wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.
Dalsze rozpowszechnianie artykułu za zgodą wydawcy INFOR PL S.A. Kup licencję.