If we consider the West as Europe and North America -Oceania can be included in this concept-, major changes in Western societies are taking place due to the following factors:
Migration. The great waves of African and Asian refugees in Europe and Central Americans migrants in the US are generating changes in the hosting countries. The West is witnessing the appearance of a big social-economic inequality and a greater cultural gap between different sector of the society. This may lead to social conflicts and the reappearance of intolerance.
Climate change. Global warming will affect not only the West but the entire planet. Many European countries are changing from a carbon-based to a renewable energy framework, but since the biggest economy in the world, the US, has abandoned the Paris Agreement and there is little international commitment towards this problem, there may be major consequences these countries will have to deal with, like climate refugees.
Technology. In the near future, overall in Western countries, there may be a stronger dependence on algorithms to take important individual and collective decisions. IA and algorithms may displace many people from their current jobs, increasing unemployment. Also, new jobs may appear.
Free market. Currently, in the global economy there is no alternative to the free market, instead, different countries tend to pendulate between free market and protectionism. But, since free trade and exchange of goods and information is becoming the rule, free market may create new supra-states organizations that may lead the international economy.
West may find important allies in many South-Eastern Asian countries as well as Far-East countries like Japan and South Korea. The crisis that many other emerging markets are facing right now makes it difficult to attempt a prediction whether they will become relevant players on which the West may rely on.
