Riccardo Petrella

Riccardo Petrella heads the European Community’s Forecasting and Assessment of Science and Technology division in Brussels, Belgium. In the following viewpoint, Petrella predicts that by the middle of the twenty-first century, “technologically highly developed city-regions” will replace nation-states as the world’s predominant socioeconomic and political entities. Petrella contends that these city-regions—Orange County, California; Osaka, Japan; Lyon, France; and others—will exert their influence in an alliance with transnational companies in the future global economy.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is the triadic approach to development, according to Petrella?
2. How could the vast majority of the world’s population be relegated to a “disintegrating wasteland,” in the author’s opinion"

The new world order taking shape is...