*So much trouble in the world...
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
Release Date: December 20, 2012
"The Center for Preventive Action’s annual Preventive Priorities Survey (PPS) evaluates ongoing and potential violent conflicts based on the impact they could have on U.S. interests and their likelihood of occurring in the coming year. Policymakers have limited time and resources for preventive action and thus have to focus on a select number of potentially harmful contingencies from a myriad of possibilities. The PPS polls experts in the field and aims to help the U.S. policy community prioritize these competing conflict prevention and mitigation demands. Click on the map below to see the contingencies associated with each country:"
(((it's quite a map, you should go click on it; try not to blow anything up)))
an Iranian nuclear crisis such as a surprise advance in Iran’s nuclear weapons/delivery capability followed by an Israeli response
a mass casualty attack on the U.S. homeland or on a treaty ally
a highly disruptive cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure
a major erosion of security in Afghanistan resulting from coalition drawdown
intensification of Syria’s civil war, including possible limited external intervention
severe internal instability in Pakistan, triggered by a civil-military crisis or terror attacks
nonstate actors acquire biological or chemical weapons from stockpiles in Syria
a major military incident with China involving U.S. or allied forces such as a Sino-Japanese clash over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands
a severe North Korean crisis caused by another military provocation, internal political instability, or threatening nuclear weapons/ICBM-related activities
a significant increase in drug trafficking violence in Mexico that spills over into the United States
unrest in Egypt over pace of reforms and deteriorating economic conditions
a severe Indo-Pakistan crisis that carries risk of military escalation, triggered by a major terror attack
further deterioration of security and/or backlash against counterterrorism operations expands al-Qaeida in the Arabian Peninsula safe haven in Yemen
rising sectarian violence and growing secessionist pressures in Iraq
a South China Sea armed confrontation over competing territorial claims
growing instability in Bahrain that spurs violent government reprisals or further Saudi and/or Iranian military action
increasing sectarian violence and heightened political instability in Nigeria
continuing political instability and emergence of a terrorist safe haven in Libya
widespread popular protests in Jordan triggered by dissatisfaction with the pace of political reform
renewed sectarian violence in Lebanon due to spillover from the conflict in Syria
failure of a multilateral intervention to push out Islamist groups from Mali’s north
renewed unrest in the Kurdish dominated regions of Turkey and the Middle East
an outbreak of military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, possibly over Nagorno-Karabakh
political instability in Saudi Arabia that endangers global oil supplies
a U.S.-Pakistan military confrontation, triggered by a terror attack or U.S. counterterror operations
military conflict between Sudan and South Sudan
renewed ethnic violence in Kenya surrounding March 2013 presidential election
a deepening of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo that involves military intervention from its neighbors
growing popular unrest and political instability in Sudan
widespread unrest in Zimbabwe surrounding the electoral process and/or the death of Robert Mugabe
(((a veritable smorgasbord of unwritten technothriller novels)))
