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Scenario Narratives LOCK STEP
interests — whether it was gaining access to Wherever national interests clashed with
needed resources or banding together in order individual interests, there was conflict. Sporadic
to achieve economic growth. In South America pushback became increasingly organized and
and Africa, regional and sub-regional alliances coordinated, as disaffected youth and people
became more structured. Kenya doubled its who had seen their status and opportunities slip
trade with southern and eastern Africa, as new away — largely in developing countries — incited
partnerships grew within the continent. China’s civil unrest. In 2026, protestors in Nigeria
investment in Africa expanded as the bargain brought down the government, fed up with the
of new jobs and infrastructure in exchange for entrenched cronyism and corruption. Even those
access to key minerals or food exports proved who liked the greater stability and predictability
agreeable to many governments. Cross-border of this world began to grow uncomfortable and
ties proliferated in the form of official security constrained by so many tight rules and by the
aid. While the deployment of foreign security strictness of national boundaries. The feeling
teams was welcomed in some of the most dire lingered that sooner or later, something would
failed states, one-size-fits-all solutions yielded inevitably upset the neat order that the world’s
few positive results. governments had worked so hard to establish. •
By 2025, people seemed to be growing weary of
so much top-down control and letting leaders
Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development
and authorities make choices for them.
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