21st Century

The 21st century has been marked by growing economic globalization and integration, with consequent increased risk to interlinked economies, and by the expansion of communications with mobile phones and the Internet. The period has also been marked by growing military globalization and unipolarity, with consequent stabilization of peace and the spread of democracy.

Worldwide demand and competition for resources has risen due to growing populations and industrialization, especially in India, China and Brazil. This increased demand is causing increased levels of environmental degradation and a growing threat of global warming. That in turn has spurred the development of alternate, renewable sources of energy (notably solar energy and wind energy), proposals for cleaner fossil-fuel technologies and expanded use of nuclear energy (somewhat dampened by nuclear-plant accidents), and, conversely, calls to eschew the indiscriminate large-scale employment of the "fissile-fossil complex" of fissile- (nuclear) and fossil-fuel (coal, petroleum, natural-gas) energy generation.

HISTORY