A new 120 page report by the CIA, Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project, is predicting the continued stagnation and decline of Europe and Japan, and the growth to prominence of the emerging economies of China, India, and even Brazil:

Branding Japan and Europe as the “ageing” powers, the experts predict that ageing populations and shrinking work forces will become a major economic and political challenge for the years to come.

“Either European countries adapt their work forces, reform their social welfare, education, and tax systems, and accommodate growing immigrant populations or they face a period of protracted economic stasis that could threaten the huge successes made in creating a more United Europe”, the US report warned.

Splintering Europe
The current welfare state is thought by to be “unsustainable” and the lack of any economic revitalization could lead to the “splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the European Union, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role”, the experts said.

A total break from the post-World War II welfare state model may, however, not be necessary, as shown in Sweden’s successful example of providing more flexibility for businesses while conserving many worker rights.

US on top
Going under the title, ‘Mapping the Global Future’, the report concluded that no other state in the world would match the US by 2020.