These are uncertain times.
While Brexit looms on this side of the Atlantic, a few thousand miles west, Donald Trump is weeks away from being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America.
But if you’re looking for someone to tell you everything’s going to be fine, don’t bother listening to what Johan Galtung has to say. Especially if you’re American.
The Norweigian professor has predicted a number of historical events, including the Tiananmen Square uprising and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Also credited with predicting the fall of the Soviet Union, Galtung also controversially suggested in 2000 that the US global power would collapse by 2025. With George W Bush in the White House, he revised this forecast for 2020. With Trump now preparing for his inauguration ceremony, Galtung has pointed out that he believes this is becoming a reality.
Trump’s views on anti-immigration are said to coincide with one of the final stages of the decline that Galtung discussed in his 2009 book, The Fall of the American Empire—and then What?, where he predicted a rise in fascism prior to the country’s demise.
Speaking to Motherboard, Galtung said that Trump’s election potentially speeds up this decline, with his attitude towards Nato also contributing.
Trump has previously said that the US might not come to the aid of those in the alliance if they failed to meet designated defence spending.
“The collapse has two faces,” Galtung explained, “Other countries refuse to be good allies and the USA has to do the killing themselves, by bombing from high altitudes, drones steered by computer from an office, special forces killing all over the place.
“Both are happening today, except for Northern Europe, which supports these wars, for now. That will probably not continue beyond 2020, so I stand by that deadline.”
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