Submission Statement:

Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies: In the 1990s two scholars proposed that the broad strokes of Western history can be understood as a series of cycles switching between states of stability and turmoil and spanning roughly 80 years each.

According to their theory, we may be heading towards the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one – meaning that we will enter a period of crisis and global re-ordering.

The ‘Fourth Turning’ theory of history rests on a series of shaky assumptions, but is there some truth to it?

This article was first published in FARSIGHT - Futures Reviewed. The quarterly publication from Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.