The Seven Revolutions Initiative is a project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to identify and analyze the key policy challenges that policymakers, business figures, and other leaders will face out to the year 2025. It is an effort to promote strategic thinking on the long-term trends that too few leaders take the time to consider.

In exploring the world of 2025, they have identified seven areas of change they expect to be most “revolutionary”:

  • A group of peopleRevolution 1: Population

    What effects will population growth/decline, aging, migration and urbanization have on our future world?

  • Refinery at DuskRevolution 2: Resource Management

    What changes will we see in food, water & energy consumption/production?

  • MotherboardRevolution 3: Technology

    What changes are we going to see in computation, robotics, biotechnology & nanotechnology?

  • Binary CodeRevolution 4: Information and Knowledge

    How does the vast amount of data change how we learn and govern in the future?

  • World CurrenciesRevolution 5: Economic Integration

    How is our economic landscape changing?

  • Soldier preparing a missileRevolution 6: Conflict

    How do we cope with a post-9/11 world? Or is there a new paradigm?

  • Ban Ki MoonRevolution 7: Governance

    What is the role of leaders, corporations and NGO’s in this new environment?

    Each of these seven forces embodies both opportunity and risk in the years ahead. Together, they will transform the way we live and interact with one another. The SEVEN REVOLUTIONS website is constantly updated to reflect the latest data analysis and available technologies. It is a challenge to leaders—a challenge to think seriously about events that are over the horizon and a challenge to formulate and carry out policies in the near term to effect longer-range benefits.