The 21st Century: a better world or a brave new world

Based on the world report, The World Ahead: our Future in the Making, this article identifies four major challenges which we face at the dawn of the 21st century: peace, social inequality, sustainable development and long‐term global planning. It argues that society needs to be rebuilt and envisages it as an international democracy founded on four pillars or contracts – social, natural, cultural and ethical – and looks at some of the preconditions and costs.