New Report Warns Current Global Governance Systems Lack Capacity to Deal with Global Risks

'The financial crisis has drained the world’s capacity for dealing with shocks. The frequency and severity of risks to global stability have amplified, while the ability of global governance systems to deal with them has not.

As a result, economic disparity and global governance failures are two central risks identified by the report. These two risks are shaping the evolution of many other global risks – the complexity of these issues can lead to unintended consequences and traditional risk response mechanisms often simply shift risk to other parts of society.

Three risk clusters of particular concern are also highlighted in the report:

the relationship between illicit trade, crime, corruption and state fragility

a set of interconnected risks tied to water, food and energy

risks related to global macroeconomic imbalances.

In addition to these three clusters of risk, Global Risks 2011 identifies five emerging risks to watch:

Cybersecurity: the new frontier for controlling information, from hackers and massive service failures to the little-understood possibility of cyberwarfare between nation states

High population growth: in fragile, resource-constrained countries, population growth may result in “population cluster bombs”, increased violence and state collapse

Resource scarcity: limits on commodities, water and energy put stringent limits on growth and create conflict hotspots

Retrenchment from globalization: as economic inequality grows, a populist backlash against globalization could fracture economic and political integration

Nuclear and biological weapons threats are of renewed concern in a fragile world'

lots ! more ...

http://www.forumblog.org/blog/2011/01/global-risks-2011-sixth-edition.html

Or maybe we'll enter a global age of brotherly love, equanimity and equity.