The Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), in collaboration with the Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics of the ESADE Academic Institution (EsadeGeo), issues an annual document to highlight the themes that will mark the international agenda, as well as collect the feedback from different groups around the global trends that will arise in the next year.
According to the latest study, 2020 will be marked by the disorientation due to lack of social referents and institutions questioned for not channeling social frustrations in an increasingly unequal world and out of sync with the technological boom.
The international trends they address will be concretized in three aspects: disorientation, caused by the questioning of institutions; economic, generational and territorial inequality; and the desynchronizationcaused by societies that moves at different rhythms.
From these three axes, ten themes have been set that will guide the global agenda of 2020, among which we can highlight: citizen protests, the politicization of climate, the "Northless" economy or the technology as a new frontier of power.
The ten themes that will mark the global agenda are:
- Protests and answers. Opposite reactions to the outbreak of political and social conflict.
- The politicization of the climate issue. Right-wing populism will try to exploit the fear of those who are losing the fight against climate change.
- The UN at 75: retirement or reinvention. Anniversary in full questioning of multilateralism.
- A “Northless” economy. More heterodox voices and pressure on digital taxation.
- Technology as a new frontier of power. There will be tensions between countries, states and corporations, and between digital activists and repressive forces.
- China: forced to choose? The empowerment of China divides, creates new dependencies in Latin America and accentuates competition between EU countries.
- Elections in the United States. Trump will use the foreign agenda to consolidate an image of strong leadership and ensure external support.
- A geopolitical Europe: more than a motto? The new Commission will need resources and allies to project itself to the world as the regulatory power.
- Afro-optimism and afro-realism. Africa will generate a global geopolitical competition.
- Mediterranean: cooperation and conflict. 25th anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (also known as Barcelona Process) in a hostile context.
This article was originally edited by Get Up and Goals! Spain. You can read the original version here: Diez temas que marcarán la agenda global en 2020
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