By 2040, an estimated 65 percent of the world’s population will be in cities. That’s 6 billion people. While overall poverty will decline, an estimated one-third of those people – or 2 billion – will be living in a “slumlike situation,” says Kathleen Hicks, who was until August the Pentagon’s principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for policy.
This in turn will result in a “very high potential for lack of governance.”
With cities growing quickly, “You just don’t have the governance structures to keep up with that,” she adds, noting that services like sanitation and local trash collection could fall by the wayside and create grievances.
Such a “hyper-pressurized, compact environment” could fuel criminal organizations, much like the narco-gangs of Central America.
It could also create alternative means of governance, such as Hamas-like organizations, to meet the daily needs of the people.
