ABSTRACT
Geopolitical conditions and the global economy have changed dramatically in the past 50 years. It is both easy and necessary to consider these changes as new developments. However, it is also difficult and desirable to consider the sequence of historical contexts that have made these recent changes plausible or at least possible. No group of specialists, whether in government, business, journalism or academia, has a very convincing track record of predicting what will come next. Nor do we routinely consider how our current conditions have been formulated out of materials brought forth in earlier moments of history. Perhaps some brief consideration of how such materials have been combined in both conscious and contingent ways more recently may help us anticipate more effectively the likelihoods of different kinds of political, social, and economic changes in the future.
