Thus the Financial Times today. “By 2030 Asia seen dwarfing west in economic and military power,” elaborates the newspaper. The report in question was just published by the National Intelligence Council, which reflects the views of sixteen intelligence agencies in America. Among other things, it predicts that Europe, Japan, and Russia will continue to decline, and that Asia will come to dwarf the rest of the world. China is a “wildcard,” which will largely depend on its own actions. “Pax Americana,” the period of American dominance that started in 1945, will come to an end, but America will remain “first among equals“ in a broad coalition of countries. According to the article, the most important trend through 2030 will be the growth of the middle class and a surge of “individual empowerment.” And so on, and so forth. In short, this strikes me as a pretty boring report. Homogenizing the views of many intelligence agencies cannot be otherwise, anyhow. One cannot but hope that some of them have more interesting things to say about the world in 2030. And the most interesting bit would be an expert assessment of the likelihood and consequences of World War III. But such an assessment must be a top secret at this time.