Foreign Policy:Every day, migrants working in rich countries send money to their families in the developing world. Last year, these remittances added up to $80 billion, outstripping foreign aid. Find out why remittances boomed in the 1990s�and how this money is lifting entire nations out of poverty, rewiring international politics, and reshaping immigration policy.

Our Role in the Terror - 9/11 - Global Policy Forum: "After the six-day war of 1967, when nationalism and socialism seemed to have brought only humiliation and defeat, there was a revival of religious politics in the Arab world. Palestinians long held out against this trend, but despairing of the ordinary political process, the Islamist parties finally emerged in 1987. Once God is brought into the conflict, positions become absolute, sacred and far more difficult to negotiate. "

Our Role in the Terror - 9/11 - Global Policy Forum: "Yet to those who had studied these movements it was clear long before 9/11 that fundamentalists all over the world were expressing fears and anxieties that no government could safely ignore. "

Our Role in the Terror - 9/11 - Global Policy Forum: "The 'fundamentalist' movements that emerged in every major faith tradition during the 20th century conform to this pattern. Wherever a western-style, secularist society has been established, a religious counterculture has developed alongside it. The persistence of this militant piety shows a disturbing and worldwide alienation from western modernity. Every group that I have studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam has experienced secularism as destructive, and is engaged in a battle designed to push God and religion back to centre stage. All are convinced that the secularist liberal establishment is determined, in one way or another, to wipe them out. "

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Matthew Engel: Road to ruin: "America produces a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, the population has risen by 100 million since 1970 and when an area three times the size of Britain was recently opened up for mining, drilling, logging and road building, no one took much notice. What does the Bush administration do? It ignores all attempts to curb environmental damage. In a major investigation that took him from the Salton Sea in California to Crooked Creek in Florida, Matthew Engel reports on how America is ravaging the planet "

PressInfo 190, Hydra, Proliferation, Fullspectrum dominance: "'The emerging synergy of space superiority with land, sea, and air superiority, will lead to Full Spectrum Dominance. Space forces play an increasingly critical role in providing situational awareness (e.g. global communications; precise navigation; timely and accurate missile warning and weather; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to US forces.)
Space doctrine, organizations, training, materiel, leadership and personnel will evolve to fully realize the potential of space power. Space power is a vital element in moving towards the Joint Vision goal of being persuasive in peace, decisive in war, and pre-eminent in any form of conflict.'"

PressInfo 190, Hydra, Proliferation, Fullspectrum dominance: "'The horror scenarios of the Cold War have disappeared, but the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons has not. Like the monstrous Hydra of Greek mythology, modern weapons of mass destruction are sprouting new heads faster than anybody can cut them off.'
So wrote Anna Lindh and Erkki Tuomioja, the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Finland respectively, in an article in The International Herald Tribune, whose title gives their answer to the threat: 'Slaying the Hydra - together'. As they conclude:
'Even Hercules could not kill the many headed monster alone. Only by acting together will we safeguard the security of all.'"

Economist.com | The future of energyBy introducing a small but steadily rising tax on petrol, America would do far more to encourage innovation and improve energy security than all the drilling in Alaska's wilderness. Crucially, this need not be, and should not be, a matter of raising taxes in the aggregate. The proceeds from a gasoline tax ought to be used to finance cuts in other taxes�this, surely, is the way to present them to a sceptical electorate. Judging by the debate going on in Washington, a policy of this kind is a distant prospect. That is a great shame.

Economist.com | The future of energy: "If treating the West's addiction to oil will be costly, is it really worth doing? To be sure. Petro-addiction imposes mighty costs of its own. First, there is the political risk of relying on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Oil still has a near-monopoly hold on transport. If the supply is cut off even for a few days, modern economies come to a halt, as Britain discovered when tax protestors blockaded some domestic oil depots two years ago. And despite what sound like large investments in new oil fields in Russia and elsewhere, Saudi Arabia's share of the world oil market will actually grow over the next two decades simply because it has such huge reserves of cheap oil. Geology has granted two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves to Saudi Arabia and four of its neighbours. Because of this continuing concentration of supply, the risk of a disruption to oil flows will continue to be a threat, and may even rise."

Economist.com | The future of energy�THE Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.� This intriguing prediction is often heard in energy circles these days. If greens were the only people to be expressing such thoughts, the notion might be dismissed as Utopian. However, the quotation is from Sheikh Zaki Yamani, a Saudi Arabian who served as his country's oil minister three decades ago. His words are rich in irony.

MIT Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change: "The MIT JOINT PROGRAM ON THE SCIENCE & POLICY OF GLOBAL CHANGE was founded in 1991 as an interdisciplinary organization that conducts research, independent policy analysis, and public communication on issues of global environmental change. It is not a degree-granting entity. "

MIT Integrated Global System Model: "The MIT Integrated Global System Model "

Trends Online Abstract: "Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. 2003. Trends Online: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee."

Amazon.com: Editorial Reviews: Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change: "For the past 4 billion years, the chemistry of the Earth's surface, where all life exists, has changed remarkably. Historically, these changes have occurred slowly enough to allow life to adapt and evolve. In more recent times, the chemistry of the Earth is being altered at a staggering rate, fueled by industrialization and an ever-growing human population. Human activities, from the rapid consumption of resources to the destruction of the rainforests and the expansion of smog-covered cities, are all leading to rapid changes in the basic chemistry of the Earth."

If ...China�s economy would be three times larger than the US by 2030 in US dollar terms and 25 times larger by 2050.As countries develop, these forces fade and growth rates tend to slow towards developed country levels. In Japan andGermany, very rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s gave way to more moderate growth in the 1980s and 1990s. This is why simple extrapolation gives silly answers over long timeframes. As a crude example, assuming that China�s GDP growth continued to grow at its current 8% per year over the next three decades would lead to the prediction that China�s economy would be three times larger than the US by 2030 in US dollar terms and 25 times larger by 2050.

DreamingWith BRICs: The Path to 2050Over the next 50 years, Brazil, Russia, India and China�the BRICs economies could become a much larger force in the world economy. Using the latest demographic projections and a model of capital accumulation and productivity growth, we map out GDP growth, income per capita and currency movements in the BRICs economies until 2050.

It's back to the old world order - OCT 17, 2003: "One is that the real environmental crisis is coming at us even faster than the pessimists feared: Four or five billion people in the Brics and other Asian and Latin American countries, who will be consuming at current European levels by 2050, will put huge additional stress on the environment. The time for emergency measures is probably now - not that there is any real hope of such a thing."

Can We Abolish Poverty? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum With the per capita income for the world being $7140.00, there must be many poor people around. It is in the nature of the ratio of the world�s resources and its population that some people will have more than they need, while others can hardly eke out a living. The four richest people in the world � Bill Gates (worth $46.0 billion), Warren Buffet ($36.0 billion), Karl/Theo Albrecht ($25.6 billion), and Paul Allen ($22.0 billion) have combined assets of approximately $130 billion, which is more than three times the gross domestic product for Nigeria. The world�s resources are not equitably distributed among countries � just as the wealth within any particular country is not shared equally among the residents.

Can We Abolish Poverty? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "Examples of such countries as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia, and Sierra Leone show that the good work achieved through decades of gradual progress towards leaving the poverty club can be wiped out in only a few months of political crisis, which is usually accompanied by looting the national treasury with impunity."

Noosphere: "The Noosphere is the part of the world of life that is created by man's thought and culture.Pierre Teillhard De Chardin, Vladimir Ivanovich Verdansky and Edouard Le Roy distinguish the noosphere from the geosphere, the non living world, and from the biosphere, the living world. "

TheStar.com - Downsizing American imperialism: "'The problem with American power is not that it is American. The problem is simply the power. It would be dangerous even for an archangel to wield so much power.'"

Beyond WTO, Will South-South Cooperation Bite? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy ForumAgain the WTO has no role in regulating the traders. Almost 70% of world trade is between transnational corporations. In today�s world it is corporations that trade not countries. Through their governments, the TNCs can influence an organisation which has no power to regulate them. The WTO increasingly looks like the wrong trade organisation for the reality of international trade today. But at least it is, in theory, a democratic organisation, with its 146 countries � soon to be 148 with the addition of Cambodia and Nepal � having an equal say. Members have the power to change the rules. The new alliances have testing times ahead.

Beyond WTO, Will South-South Cooperation Bite? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy ForumWill the new alliances fare better? Are we now seeing South-South cooperation with teeth? The Cancun alliances look impressive. Foremost is the G23 which includes all the big developing countries, notably Brazil, China, India and South Africa. At the start of the Cancun meeting, as the G20, it submitted a key paper on agriculture which calls for an end to export subsidies for farmers that encourage dumping, and for a cap on direct payments, within a specific time frame. The paper shook the complacency of the US and EU. By the end of the meeting, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria had joined the group and the G23 represented well over half the world�s population.

Japan Pledges $1 Billion in African Aid - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, opening a major donor conference Monday, pledged $1 billion in new aid for education and health care in Africa. The money, to be dispersed over five years, will help fund AIDS treatment, vaccinations and building schools and facilities for drinking water. Koizumi's announcement came at the start of a three-day conference in Tokyo on fighting poverty and promoting sustainable development in Africa. Heads of state from 23 African countries and representatives of leading donor nations and aid groups will discuss infectious diseases, conflict prevention and investment on the continent during the meeting. "

Interview : Pierre L�vy: "Disons que le langage oral porte l'intelligence collective de la tribu, que l'�criture porte l'intelligence collective de la ville, et que le futur Web s�mantique exprimera l'intelligence collective de l'humanit� mondialis�e interconnect�e dans le cyberespace. "

ID21 - communicating development research: "Why has aid failed to achieve development? Should other forms of financing for development (FfD) be emphasised instead for narrowing the wealth and income gaps between developing and developed countries? Are developed countries and international financial institutions (IFIs) doing enough to help developing countries mobilise domestic resources, encourage foreign investment and expand earnings from trade?"

La Banque et la crise de la dette du Tiers Monde : mise en perspective historique

Robotique, vie artificielle, r�alit� virtuelle: Le monde des m�mes

M�DIAS africains et Internet

India Calls For UN Security Council Expansion - Security Council - Global Policy Forum United Nations, 12 March: Cautioning that "unrepresentative and anachronistic" character of UN Security Council might hinder its ability to tackle threats to international peace and security in the long run, India called for its faster expansion by including developing countries.
"It is imperative that its reforms be given the highest priority," Indian Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN A. Gopinathan said. Calling for "collective endeavour" to move the process of reforming the Council, including its expansion, at a faster pace, he said making developing countries permanent members is essential to ensure its more representative character. As the Council acts mostly on situations in developing countries, the "expansion of the Council to include new permanent and non-permanent members is essential," he said.....

Globalization - Globalization, Cosmopolitanism and Democracy: an Interview
Interview with David Held, Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, by Montserrat Guibernau, Senior Lecturer in Politics at the Open University.

L'axe du Mal Monde diplomatique

Current Time Chicago, February 27, 2002: Today, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the minute hand of the �Doomsday Clock,� the symbol of nuclear danger, from nine to seven minutes to midnight, the same setting at which the clock debuted 55 years ago. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, this is the third time the hand has moved forward.

Glossary and the Concept of Emerging Systemic Risks < BR>

World: Environmentalist Predicts Economic Collapse If Trends Continue
...In order to survive, the global economy must undergo a shift as groundbreaking as the Copernican revolution in astronomy in the 16th century, which recognized that the Earth revolves around the sun, rather than vice versa. This is the message being taken to political and business leaders all over the world by noted U.S. environmentalist Lester Brown, who says they need to recognize that the economy should be considered secondary to ecological concerns. To do the reverse -- treat the environment as of lesser importance than the economy -- spells certain disaster, warns Brown, who last week was in Brussels and spoke to RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas....

Analyses de livres - ao�t 1999
... � l'aube du troisi�me mill�naire, l'heure n'est plus aux querelles qui ont entour� la publication de L'origine des esp�ces et de La descendance de l'homme. De tout autres pr�occupations s'imposent : l'esp�ce humaine est la premi�re qui ait d�truit un nombre si consid�rable d'autres esp�ces vivantes en si peu de temps (quelques d�cennies), la premi�re qui ait tant boulevers� le fonctionnement des �cosyst�mes naturels, la premi�re qui s'appr�te � modifier les plans de sa propre structure en cisaillant et en recollant l'ADN...

Global Competitiveness Report 2001-2002Available December 2001

An invaluable tool that identifies existing impediments to economic growth.

Executive Summary: Competitiveness and Stages of Economic Development  [in PDF Format] 

....At low levels of development, government�s main job is to provide overall political and macroeconomic stability and sufficiently free markets to permit the effective utilization of primary commodities and unskilled labor both by indigenous firms and through attracting foreign investment.
Firms produce commodities or relatively simple products of long-standardized technology designed in other more advanced countries.Technology is assimilated through imports, foreign direct investment, and imitation. In this stage, companies compete on price and often lack direct access to consumers.They have limited roles in the value chain, focused on assembly, labor-intensive manufacturing,
and resource extraction. A Factor-Driven economy is highly sensitive to world economic cycles, commodity price trends, and exchange rate fluctuations.....

WORLD The global financial architecture in transition

During the past quarter-century, economic and financial liberalisation across
the world has led to the new, market-based financial economy in which we live.
This transformation of the financial system has brought considerable benefits.
But as the recent episode in Argentina reminds us, it has also been
accompanied by too many financial crises, especially affecting emerging market
countries. Some NGOs, voices in the media, and a few economists blame
neo-liberal economic reforms for these problems. But policymakers have little
appetite for a return to strict government regulations and have concentrated
instead on the need to make markets function better by adopting rules-based
frameworks to guide financial policies and markets. In addition to crisis
prevention, the objective is to make countries more resilient in times of
financial turbulence.

Suffrage Lesson - Facts (Women in World History Curriculum) Selected Suffrage Facts Winning the Vote in National Elections

The Poor Speak Up Leaders of the developing world are rising up with a strength not seen since Tito, Nasser and Nehru, challenging the rules of globalization as defined by both Western governments and Western activists

Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | Is human evolution finally over? Is human evolution finally over? Scientists are split over the theory that natural selection has come to a standstill in the West. Robin McKie reports

Scientific American: Feature Article: The Bottleneck: February 2002 We have entered the Century of the Environment, in which the immediate future is usefully conceived as a bottleneck: science and technology, combined with foresight and moral courage, must see us through it and out...

Etats-Unis : le budget de la defense explose
"Les Etats-Unis se dirigent vers la plus forte hausse des depenses militaires depuis la presidence de Ronald Reagan, depuis ces 20 dernieres annees.George W. Bush veut augmenter le budget de la defense de 120 milliards de dollars au cours des 5 prochaines annees. Il devrait en faire la demande au Congres ce lundi. Il avait deja annonce une "grosse .."

Le Monde.fr : Les Etats-Unis face au terrorisme Les Etats-Unis se sont dits prets a combattre seuls le terrorisme a la Conference annuelle internationale de Munich sur la securite samedi et dimanche, qui a revele de profondes divergences avec leurs allies europeens.

UNCTAD: What's New? FDI DOWNTURN IN 2001 TOUCHES ALMOST ALL REGIONS
Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developed countries declined by nearly half in 2001, according to updated regional estimates released today by UNCTAD, with flows also down in all developing regions except Africa. Despite the overall decrease in 2001, however, surveys of transnational corporations (TNCs) for the coming three years suggest a limited impact of 11 September on investment plans. The attractiveness of China, especially after its accession to the WTO, is expected to be sustained.

Un site de recherche en prospective a ete cree dans le cadre du Programme Europeen de la Modelisation de la complexite. La fondation de Thierry Gaudin a un site site. Futuribles a son site. Le LIPS de Michel Godet et Fabrice Roubelat a un site. On peut acceder au projet US Millennium de J. Gleen. Le projet Humanity 3000 porte sur le tres long terme.

New Scientist | New Technology It's said that technology is the engine of modern economies. But how do you track its progress? New Scientist's reporters make it easy for you by continually uncovering the key new technologies that are changing your world. This expanded section highlights the breadth of our coverage - visit every week to keep up with the very latest emerging ideas.

Global population trends

NEVER has the pressure on the world's resources been so great. Over the next 20 years, the global population is expected to grow by a quarter - that's an extra 1.5 billion mouths to feed. This at a time when, even though we grow enough to feed everyone, 800 million people are still malnourished.
Meat production continues to soar, with China taking over the mantle of biggest meat eater from the US. While soybean production has rocketed, the fish catch looks to have peaked. About 60 per cent of ocean fisheries are now being exploited at or close to capacity.
Grain production per capita (not shown) is static, but land area per capita for growing grain is falling. This is partly due to the rising population but also reflects urban encroachment on farmland and, more positively, the replanting of marginal soils with more sustainable crops. Soil continues to be squandered, with 5 to 6 million hectares a year being lost to soil degradation.
Water is also under pressure as never before. Today, some 500 million people do not have enough water. By 2025, that number is expected to hit 2.5 billion. The World Resources Institute in Washington DC estimates that 160 million cubic metres more water is pumped from aquifers each year than is flowing into them. This is enough to grow grain for 480 million people. So, these people are being fed from a source that cannot be sustained.

WTO | NEWS - World trade slows sharply in 2001 amid the uncertain international situation - Press 249 19 October 2001

World trade slows sharply in 2001 amid the uncertain international situation.

Developing countries contributed to the vigorous expansion of world output and trade in 2000.

Growth in world merchandise trade is expected to slow in volume terms to only 2% in 2001 � compared with 12% in 2000. Even this growth is not assured given the present great uncertainties about economic and trade developments, according to the report International Trade Statistics, 2001 published today (25 October 2001) by the World Trade Organization.