Last year, a private-intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor, published its Decade Forecast, in which it highlights the next 10 years of probable global political and economic developments. While international analysts often exercise their interest at predicting the major events of the future, Stratfor is confident that it's identified the major trends of the next decade. According to Stratfor, the world would be a dangerous place to live in the next 10 years with US power declining and the rising chaos between other prominent countries.

Germany is going to have problems

The German economy is largely dependent on export which has largely benefited the nation from the continent-wide trade liberalization enabled through the EU and the Euro, but that simply means the country has the most to lose from a terrible Euro crisis and the resulting wave of 'Euroscepticism'.

There will be four Europes

The Decade Forecast talks about four Europes that will become increasingly estranged from one another - Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the British islands. They will still share the same neighbourhood, but they won't be as close to each other as they were before. The European political, economic and military relations will be governed mostly by bilateral or limited multilateral relationships that will be small in scope and not binding.