DigiMag Glacier_Q4_2017 | Page 8

SCENARIO PLANNING THE CLOUDY AND CLOCKWORK FLAGS CHANGING THE GLOBAL GAME To get ahead of your competitors, you need the bright eyes of a fox to spot the flags changing the game around you – and the agility of a fox to meet the challenges they pose. IN THIS UPDATE ON THE GLOBAL FLAGS I identified in 2015’s Flagwatching, you’ll see that clockwork flags are those ticking away with fairly precise consequences, whereas cloudy flags can have a wide array of possible outcomes. The religious flag The flag of major religious conflict, which really only went up the flagpole in this century after a thousand-year hiatus, is affecting all sorts of games in a significant way. The first is the Middle East and North Africa, parts of which are in a permanent state of civil war as a result of this flag. Thousands have died, millions have been turned into refugees and major cities like Aleppo have been destroyed. The second is the toughening of