Friedman offers a lucid, highly readable forecast of the changes we can expect around the world during the 21st century. He explains where and why future wars will erupt (and how they will be fought), which nations will gain and lose economic and political power, and how new technologies and cultural trends will alter the way we live in the new century. Drawing on history and geopolitical patterns dating back hundreds of years, he shows that we are now, for the first time in half a millennium, at the dawn of a new era - with changes in store including: the US-Jihadist war will conclude, to be replaced by a second full-blown cold war with Russia; China will undergo a major extended internal crisis, and Mexico will emerge as an important world power; a new global war will unfold toward the middle of the century between the US and an unexpected coalition from Eastern Europe, Eurasia and the Far East; but armies will be much smaller and wars will be less deadly; technology will focus on space - both for major military uses and for a dramatic new energy resource that will have radical environmental implications.