I would like to endorse the suggestions made by Terry,
Gunder, and Al about interesting topics for world[-]system(s)
research.
I propose as well that WST, because of its unique global
level of analysis, is better situated than almost any other
orientation to contemplate the accelerating inter-relations
between environmental pressures, multiplying state fiscal crises,
and consequent state de-legitimation and fragmentation. These as
well spin off into the issues of patterns of energy use,
automation, unemployment, and crime. One simple example: the
same automation & industrial re-location that is throwing people
out of work globally (thereby engendering a proto-fascist and
xenophobic class consciousness among the working classes) also
costs enormous amounts of energy, which in turn is powering
global warming, in its turn creating rising sea levels and more
violent storms along with desertification. These "natural" (sic)
phenomena combine with unemployment & crime to impose
accelerating costs on beleaguered state budgets, strangling their
capacity to continue (already marginal) subsidies to the
burgeoning underclasses. The consequent de-legitimation of the
affected states feeds all manner of "revolutionary" movements and
regional separatisms. Case in Point: The failure of this year's
winter wheat crop in the US southwest has already compelled
Jordan to cut its food subsidies, leading to protest marches in
Amman last week and growing support for the Islamic opposition.
Bottom line--we're living in a time of multipli-nested
crises that are *GLOBAL* in scale, hence can only be properly
analyzed at *GLOBAL* level. What better place to start than with
the tools of long-term global analysis provided by WST?
--Peter Grimes