The magazine views the pandemic as “a world-shattering event whose far-ranging consequences…will lead to permanent shifts in political and economic power in ways that will become apparent only later.” It asked “12 leading global thinkers for their predictions.” The brief statements envisioned reinforced nationalism, a world less prosperous and free, the end of mutually beneficial globalization as we know it, a more China-centric globalization (accelerating a change that had already begun), reinforcement of great-power rivalry and strategic decoupling (although, in the long term, democracies might find a new type of pragmatic and protective internationalism), a shrinking of multi-country supply chains that dominate production today, an exacerbation of recent polarization within societies as we head toward a meaner and smaller world (although the pandemic may shock us into cooperating multilaterally on the big global issues), instability and widespread conflict within and across countries, weakening of European integration (albeit some modest strengthening of global public health governance), and the credibility of both the US and China “may be significantly diminished.”
Note: Not quite a “report” but worthy of notice because of the stark contrast with the hopeful view of the UN, and the fact that the UN and its SDGs are not mentioned by any of these “leading global thinkers.”