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academics from various disciplines, the report considered an extraordinarily wide range of possible futures, in an attempt to anticipate the ‘discontinuities, insecurities and volatilities’ that its authors saw as inherent to the early twenty-first century.32

Some of these predictions were uncontroversial. Few readers, even then, would have dismissed the possibility of a ‘failure of the global financial system’ or even a resurgence of ‘anti-capitalist ideologies, possibly linked to religious, anarchist or nihilist movements, but also to populism and the revival of Marxism’.33 But the report also considered ‘strategic shocks’ that would not have been out of place in the fictional worlds of William Gibson or J. G. Ballard, such as the possibility that ‘synthetic telepathy’ would facilitate ‘mind-to-mind or telepathic dialogue’ and the invention of information and entertainment devices that could be ‘wired directly to the user’s brain’.34 Another scenario posited that advances in genetic research might lead to the ‘super-enhancement of human attributes, including physical strength and sensory perception’ – a development that could make it possible for ‘dictatorial or despotic rulers’ to ‘buy longevity’.35 Nor did the authors discount the possibility that the enemies of the West might invent an unspecified super-weapon or ‘magic bullet’ that would be ‘effective against a wide range of targets and against which established countermeasures are ineffective’.36

If some of these futuristic possibilities went further than their US counterparts, the report shares the generally pessimistic mood of US military futurism in its prediction of a deteriorating security climate characterised by ‘endemic internalised violence’, terrorism and the spread of ‘ungoverned spaces’ across the world.37 In addition to the usual threat of ‘Islamist terrorism’, the authors consider the possibility that ‘the middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx’.38 Like the alienated Chelsea professionals in J. G. Ballard’s Millennium People, these middle-class rebels might turn to violence out of boredom and form a ‘terrorist coalition of the willing’ made up of ‘reactionary and revolutionary negationists, such as ultranationalists, religious groupings and even extreme environmentalists’ that would use modern communications technology to engage in ‘Rapid MassMobilisation’ and summon up violent ‘flash mobs’ in cities across the world.39

Feral cities Like many military futurists, the authors of Strategic Trends are particularly preoccupied with the security implications of explosive urbanisation in the global South and warn that rural migrants to the slums and shantytowns of Third World cities may lose their traditional markers of cultural and religious identity and fall prey to criminal gangs, nationalists and religious zealots. Some of the larger conurbations may experience ‘mega city failure’, leading to ‘Endemic Urban-Based Irregular Conflict’ so that western armies may be forced to confront ‘future adversaries who have highly-developed urban survival and combat skills’ operating from ‘sprawling towns and cities which will already have experienced endemic lawlessness and high levels of violence’.40 Such ‘ungoverned’ cities may