Wednesday, November 20, 2013

political turmoil watch list

The Economist has a special issue -- "The World in 2014" -- that includes an article and chart on areas that are "ripe for rebellion."  Look over the list of places at "very high risk" for social unrest in the coming year:
Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia, Egypt, Greece, Guinea, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Most of these places are already in the news, already in turmoil. But now we have some additional ones that should keep our intelligence community and national security officials busy. Imagine if you were in charge of tasking the intelligence community on these areas. Are there any you wouldn't want to follow closely? And what about the 46 countries deemed only "high risk"? "To govern is to choose," John F. Kennedy once said. Setting priorities on what to worry about and plan for is very difficult, as lists like this make clear.

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