Information Related to "World News Review January 2000"
| Audio/Video |
 |
In Brief... World News Reviewby Darris McNeely, Cecil Maranville and John Ross SchroederGlobal Intelligence Update Decade Forecasts Stratfor, Inc. issued a series of forecasts for the coming decade for key areas of the world. They are well worth reading. Aging U.S. baby boomers: The first is for the United States. Stratfor foresees continued prosperity for the U.S. for the first half of the decade, with a potential downturn beginning after 2005. Two outstanding aspects of the analysis focus upon the changing demographics of the U.S. population and the indicators of the current political winds blowing through the presidential election campaign. When the baby boomers cease to invest in 401k's and begin to withdraw their retirements, this will profoundly dampen the markets. Regarding presidential politics, Stratfor notes that the philosophy of the fringes often has been a precursor of mainstream thought. On that basis, they speculate that the U.S. will grow increasingly isolationist-not in the next administration, but in subsequent ones. Asian military increasingly important: The second region analyzed was Asia and Japan. Declaring that the future of Asia depends upon the largest nation and the largest economy, Stratfor centers its predictions upon China, the largest nation, and Japan, the largest economy. A glance backward reminds us that Asia recently seemed to be ready to surpass the U.S. economically, only to become embroiled in serious crises. "Asia will emerge from the current economic crisis in a markedly changed condition, but it will remain an influential and potentially dangerous region." The forecast sees potential national fragmentation in China. Japan is strengthening its military with a current defense budget of $35 billion, surpassed only by the U.S. and Russia. The generation now assuming power in Japan will be less encumbered by past negatives. The Asians will look to create a political framework after the European model. Russia wants its empire back: The third analysis, titled "The Pendulum of Democracy Swings Away From the West," focuses on Russia. Russia has bluntly rattled its nuclear saber once again, reminding the entire world that it wants to be thought of as a major power. Recent forays into Chechnya are indicative of a Russian intent to reassemble its old empire, a task that will take much of the next decade and that promises to be bloody. The assertion of military power has been popular with the Russian people. (Vladimir Putin's sudden assumption of the presidency came after Stratfor issued its analysis; it lends credence to the prediction.) Stratfor also looks for collaboration between Russia and China to limit American power. Competing forces in Europe: The analysis of Europe is a remarkable amplification of the prophetic image of "partly of potter's clay and partly of iron" (Daniel 2:41), as Stratfor's analysts detail the forces working for-and against-continued union. Stratfor has been negative about the potential for the success of the EMU since before its inception, and offers a detailed explanation of why it's in the self-interest of some European nations to see monetary union fail. It's much more difficult to accomplish a monetary union than a united market. What the analysis frankly summarizes about Germany is startling. "German unification, at least for the past century, has signaled a coming war." This report doesn't predict that Germany will start another war, but looks closely at the dynamics at work. Peaceful Middle East? The fifth analysis, "The Middle East: A Peaceful Backwater," assaults the senses with its title alone. With an understanding of biblical prophecy, we wouldn't choose those words to describe this pivotal region-even if it appears to be peaceful. Within the Arab countries, major change is imminent due to the aging of its leadership. Since republican leaders have been in power so long, there is no established means for a transition of power. In concert with that is the fact that there are strong indications of a rise in "Islamic Republicanism"-that is, a republican government in the European tradition that is Islamic after the Iranian model. Arab unity, promised by Nasser and those who patterned their regimes after his republican, anti-cleric government, has failed to materialize. They have "failed either to modernize or [to] satisfy the psychological needs of their people." The situation over the next 10 years is ripe for a "resurgent and powerful fundamentalist movement [to sweep] the Islamic world." What of Israel? Instability is foreseen as the nation struggles with its identity. "Is Israel a secular republic that happens to be ethnically Jewish or is it a Jewish state under Jewish law?" Nonetheless, Israel's ability to deal with Sadat, then Mubarak and now Syria's Assad blunted the one-time Arab goal of exterminating Israel. (As an aside, the analysis of the value of the Camp David Accord in comparison with the one-to-one dealings between Israel and Syria makes for eye-opening reading.) Stratfor's overall prediction for the world from 2000 to 2010 is that we should expect a de-synchronization of the world's nations, a profound realignment. Stratfor also issued decade forecasts for Latin America and Africa. Stratfor's Web address is www.stratfor.com. Anglican Church Lobbies for Catholic Crown The British have long had a reputation as defenders of tradition. But especially in the waning years of the 20th century, radical changes have occurred. Suddenly the Scots have their own parliament and the Welsh a national assembly, not to mention basic revisions in the way Northern Ireland is governed. Even the House of Lords has undergone rather radical reforms. Now there are fresh calls for revising the 300-year-old Act of Settlement that forbids British monarchs or the heir to the throne from marrying Roman Catholics. And many think that the disassociation of the Church of England from the crown would soon follow such a fundamental reform. The parliamentary Act of Supremacy (1559) made Queen Elizabeth I and her successors the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Act of Settlement followed nearly a century and a half later in 1701. It is only in recent decades that these two acts of parliament have been seriously questioned. At present, separation of church from state plus the Catholic marriage issue are at the pinnacle of the Anglican agenda. As The Times reported: "The Archbishop of York, Dr. David Hope, the second most important figure in the Church of England, was joined…by other senior Establishment figures in urging a lifting of the ban on monarchs marrying Roman Catholics." Media observers indicate that Number 10 Downing Street supports the idea of revising the Act of Settlement. The Prime Minister's wife is a Roman Catholic and their children are being brought up in that faith. One also recalls that in the '80s it was reported that Queen Elizabeth had to stop Prince Charles from sharing mass with the pope on a state visit to Rome. The level of support for these changes is surprising. As The Sunday Times observed, "When the Archbishop of York agrees with Scotland's Cardinal Thomas Winning that it is time to allow a Roman Catholic to sit on the throne of England, something momentous is happening in the way Britain's Christians think about themselves and their relationship to the State." To those who do not comprehend the importance of Bible prophecy or where such prophetic themes directly affecting European affairs will take the world in the future, these proposed institutional revisions may seem of little importance. But to God's people who do understand what the Bible says about where Europe is heading, both politically and religiously, they are highly significant steps in a long history of general biblical prophecies affecting the destiny of the British people. (The Sunday Times, December 26, 1999; The Times, December 27, 1999.) Rise of East Asian Power Bloc While the recent World Trade Organization meetings were marred by protestors, the more significant meetings may have been those held the week before in the Philippines. Asian leaders gathered for a summit meeting that laid a foundation for the formation of a regional bloc of East Asian nations. The South China Morning Post reported: "Leaders of North and Southeast Asian nations have signed a historic pact to strengthen bonds through closer economic and monetary co-operation. "The mainland, Japan and South Korea joined the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the first step towards the eventual creation of a giant East Asian common market, an economic powerhouse encompassing two billion people. "Philippine President Joseph Estrada, who chaired [the] informal summit in Manila, said: 'If we persevere and work harder, maybe, the promise we fulfill will realise an even loftier dream. An East Asian common market. One East Asian currency. And one East Asian community-a family from the happy union of north and south'" (November 29, 1999). A December 2, 1999, Stratfor report added this comment in light of the Malaysian turmoil: "Asia is on the threshold of abandoning its longstanding policy of non-interference. On Nov. 2, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called on the region to form a pan-Asian security structure to promote peaceful cooperation. His move echoes a growing paradigm shift, as Asian countries begin to realize that threats to individual nations' stability threaten that of the entire region. The ongoing separatist struggles in Indonesia have strengthened this sentiment; the 10 ASEAN members, and Japan, China and South Korea have announced that they stand behind Indonesia's sovereignty. Although they now lack the military capability to support their stand, Asian nations are moving faster than ever toward acting like a regional bloc." Stratfor predicts American "protectionist measures" will have a major impact on Asia. "It is vital to understand, of course, that a round of protectionist measures by the United States late in the decade will have profound effects on the international system. Most important, as the United States disengages from the Eastern Hemisphere, powerful hegemonistic forces will emerge in Eurasia that will tend to destabilize the international system as a whole. That will leave a politically resentful, militarily powerful America, suffering from serious but far from catastrophic economic dysfunction, facing an increasingly unstable world. "It is therefore our view…that economic destabilization in the United States will contribute greatly to a massive rise in international tension late in the decade. Several great powers will arise throughout Eurasia, challenging American primacy. The competition among those powers and between them and the United States will be intense, complex and dangerous. It will lack the elegant simplicity of the Cold War, posing instead the mind-numbing complexity of the pre-World War I period." Bible prophecy shows that in the end time massive armies from the east will converge upon the Middle East and Jerusalem in particular. These forces will gather to fight against Christ at His Second Coming. See Revelation 9:14-16 and 16:14-16. Events in Asia are moving, perhaps slowly for now, toward some form of cooperative effort that will have a major impact on the world in the coming years. WNP |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| © 1995-2022 United
Church of God, an International Association | Request
Free Literature Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. All correspondence and questions should be sent to info@wnponline.org. Send inquiries regarding the operation of this Web site to webmaster@churchofgodtwincities.org. |
|
Related Information:
Other Articles by Darris McNeely
Other Articles by Cecil Maranville
Other Articles by John Ross Schroeder
Keywords: U.S. demographics Japan China Russia Germany Middle East England and Catholicism Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Japan:
