National Intelligence Council

Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project

Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project is the third unclassified report prepared by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in recent years that takes a long-term view of the future. It offers a fresh look at how key global trends might develop over the next decade and a half to influence world events. Mindful that there are many possible "futures," our report offers a range of possibilities and potential discontinuities, as a way of opening our minds to developments we might otherwise miss. As I used to say to my students at Princeton, linear analysis will get you a much-changed caterpillar, but it won't get you a butterfly. For that you need a leap of imagination. We hope this project, and the dialogue it stimulates, will help us make that leap --not to predict the world of 2020, which is clearly beyond our capacity-- but to better prepare for the kinds of challenges that may lie ahead. --- Robert L. Hutchings