The document has predicted the likelihood and severity of conflicts in 2020 to take place in a number of hotspots expected to trigger a military response from the US. The report was conducted by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations’ Centre for Preventive Action, and released on Wednesday after basing its findings on conclusions from 500 foreign policy experts who reviewed “ongoing and potential conflicts based on their likelihood of occurring in the coming year and their impact on US interests”. The result was a historic high in global unrest prediction for the next year.
Director Paul B. Stares and senior fellow John W. Vessey Jr told Newsweek: “Perhaps as an indication of rising concern about the state of the world, respondents rated more threats as likely to require a US military response for 2020 than in any other Preventive Priorities Survey (PPS) from the last eleven years.
“Of the thirty conflicts in this year’s survey, only two were judged as having a low likelihood of occurring in 2020.”
Despite President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaigns on Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, the report expects two major catastrophes to take place in the US.
The report tells of a “highly disruptive cyberattack on US critical infrastructure, including its electoral systems” and a “mass-casualty terrorist attack on the United States or a treaty ally directed or inspired by a foreign terrorist organisation”.
The warning comes as tensions between the US and Iran tip boiling point.
Iran’s economy has been battered by the reimposition of punitive sanctions by the Trump administration, after the US unilaterally pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal last year.
This has led to a fall in living standards, as the economy falters.
In October, Iran’s economic minister launched a furious attack on Donald Trump and refused an invitation to a meeting in Washington after he accused the US of placing “illegal” restrictions on Iranian citizens.
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In support of Mr Dejpasand, president of the National Iranian American Council, Jamal Abdi, told The Independent, that under Trump, the US’s role as a global leader is diminishing.
Mr Abdi said: “The Trump administration is denigrating the US role as a global leader with petty moves like this one that violate international norms and subsume multilateral institutions in the ideological policies of the current White House occupant.”
President Trump also placed a new visa ban on senior Iranian officials and their associated delegates.
The news of the ban came as Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, was concluding his visit to the United Nations General Assembly. Ahead of the ban, Rouhani had refused to meet with Trump despite offers from Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson, to mediate the matter.