Saudi Arabia in the Year 2023 — How Lyndon LaRouche Anticipated Today’s Global Development Initiative 40 Years Ago

Several weeks ago, on March 11, 2023, a spectacular diplomatic event took place in China, as representatives of the Saudi and the Iranian governments shook hands and agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations.  China's role in this negotiation, as in China's promotion of the Global Civilization Initiative including a new concept of mutual economic development under the One Road One Belt policies, is reminiscent of the long work of the Schiller Institute, and the LaRouches' idea of the Eurasian Landbridge. In fact, in a precursor to the Global Civilization Initiative, in June of 1983, Lyndon LaRouche had written a “prophetic” paper entitled "Saudi Arabia in the Year 2023".  LaRouche then saw the potentials that might occur in 40 years for a new paradigm in the Middle East towards advanced development.

How could LaRouche do that? In March of 1983, the same year LaRouche published his paper on Saudi Arabia, President Ronald Reagan shocked the world with a TV broadcast in which he discussed a whole new relation with the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War doctrine of "mutually assured destruction", and calling for joint development with the Soviets of defensive systems that would make nuclear weapons obsolete, using advanced laser and particle beam technologies.  This policy, called the "Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)" was a policy proposal by Lyndon LaRouche and his organization, and adopted by President Reagan. It linked the possibility of ending the threat of nuclear war through developing new technologies that could be used for revolutions in economic progress among nations.

Today the world faces a choice: nuclear war and economic collapse, or a new paradigm for peace through development.