Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2010

A Vision for the Centennial of Our Republic

Sadi Erguvene

May 2009

Global Political Trends Center

Abstract

There are now less than fifteen years left before we celebrate the centennial of the Republic of Turkey. Taking into consideration the fact that we, the humans, managed to squeeze into the last century two or three world wars and worn out several ideologies, even raising the Earth’s temperature whilst exhausting its natural resources, no doubt we will be living in a much different world than the present one, in fifteen years from now... Moreover, the pace of change has increased such that it is incomparable with that of the past and the possibility of unforeseen technological and societal change has dramatically improved. The way the latest financial crisis erupted is the manifestation of such a potential. Since no one yet can predict the eventual outcome of the crises that suddenly shook the financial markets and economies like an earthquake, an attempt to foresee the first quarter of the 21st century might seem like a futile effort.