Terror to Grow More Deadly in Years Ahead, Says Leading Futurist

BETHESDA, MD: "Jihadists, or Muslim extremists, will acquire nuclear weapons within the next 10 years, if they do not possess them already," writes Forecasting International founder and president Marvin Cetron in the May-June issue of THE FUTURIST magazine.

More than a decade after foretelling of the dawn of the war on terror, Cetron writes that the threat of extremist Islamic terrorism continues to grow, along with the capabilities of anti-Western paramilitary elements. In his article for THE FUTURIST, he explores how terrorism, and the U.S. response to it, is likely to evolve in the years ahead.

"Rather than obtaining nuclear weapons from a sympathetic government, al-Qaeda or its spin-offs will likely become the government in any of perhaps a dozen countries. Wherever secular government is weak, it might easily be replaced by a much stronger and more virulently anti-American theocracy with leaders drawn straight from the terrorist movement."

He cites Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the "stans" of the former Soviet Union, and perhaps the Gulf states as likely candidates.

"However," he says, "our own choice for 'most likely to undergo a religious revolution' is Saudi Arabia, where the royal family has supported the extremist Wahhabi sect for some 200 years."

A copy of Cetron's article is available for free on the World Future Society homepage. Go to www.wfs.org

Pick up the May-June issue of THE FUTURIST for $4.95 at bookstores and newsstands, or write the World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814. Order online at www.wfs.org

THE FUTURIST is a bimonthly magazine focused on innovation, creative thinking, and emerging social, economic, environmental, and technological trends.
Among the thinkers and experts who have contributed to THE FUTURIST are Gene Roddenberry, Al Gore, Newt Gingrich, Richard Lamm, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Buckminster Fuller, Frederik Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Vaclav Havel, Hazel Henderson, Margaret Mead, Robert McNamara, Betty Friedan, Nicholas Negroponte, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Lester R. Brown, Arthur C. Clarke, Douglas Rushkoff, Joel Garreau, and William J. Mitchell.

Editors: To request a review copy of THE FUTURIST magazine, or to obtain a free copy of Marvin Cetron's article, go to www.wfs.org

Alternatively, contact director of communications Patrick Tucker 301-656-8274 ext. 116, ptucker@wfs.org