Hot on the heels of Mark Steyn's foreshadowing of Europe's future over the next few decades comes this look by Niall Ferguson at a possible future of the Middle East on much more immediate scale: next year.

Arthur C. Clarke once said:

'I make a spectrum of possibilities, and they include what I think might happen and what I hope won't happen. I'm always quoting the writer Ray Bradbury: “I don't try to predict the future, I try to prevent it.”'