Use of nuclear weapons more likely in future: US intelligence

The use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely by 2025, US intelligence warned Thursday in a report on global trends that forecasts a tense, unstable world shadowed by war.

“The world of the near future will be subject to an increased likelihood of conflict over scarce resources, including food and water, and will be haunted by the persistence of rogue states and terrorist groups with greater access to nuclear weapons,” said the report.

“Widening gaps in birth rates and wealth-to-poverty ratios, and the uneven impact of climate change, could further exacerbate tensions.”

Called “Global Trends 2025 — a Transformed World,” the 121-page report was produced by the National Intelligence Council, a body of analysts from across the US intelligence community.

Officials said it was being briefed to the incoming administration of president-elect Barack Obama. A year in the making, it does not take into account the recent global financial crisis.

“In one sense, a bad sense, the pace of change that we are looking at in 2025 occurred more rapidly than we had anticipated,” said Thomas Fingar, deputy director of National Intelligence. More