User blog comment:Toby2/Is this the century of Asia?/@comment-4206034-20130602112557

India will be thought to be the biggest economic power by 2075 - going on to overtake China. However, the BRICS (Viva is completely correct on the point of South Africa, they joined in 2010) still have a lot of time to grow to become a major world power. However, there is one aspect everyone forgets to mention in these cases: water.

Countries like India, China and South Africa are beginning to see water crisis', while the North sees increased rainfall. I read a couple years back that now countries in the North could be the new seats of power. If climate patterns continue to change, then the icecaps will melt, giving the north a large surplus of water. Yet in other places in the world, people will starve with the lack of water, and deserts will grow. This will mean nations like Russia and Britain might once again begin to gain power (in the North), and Canada might gain more leverage over its southern neibhour, although good relations mean no wars will likely happen.

Of course, this is only one view, yet it seems to be pretty accurate. People forget that a main reason for war is resources. Water will be a huge decider in the years to come. NATO might say that their reason for being in the Middle East is counter-terrorism - yet we all know the amount of oil they get from the Middle East. Afghanistan has one of the largest world deposits of Natural Gas - completely untapped so far.

On this note, I have been thinking of an Alternate History to do with Iran in 1979. Inspired after watching the movie Argo, it set me off thinking about the role of America in the region. A democractically elected Shah, with close relations to Germany and Turkey would be interesting - no?

So folks, things aren't always asto what it seems.