GEOPOLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT TO THE YEAR 2000

In May 1992, the European Computer-Industry Research Centre (ECRC) beg an a prospective study on the European IT industry at the horizon of t he year 2000. The group of experts in charge of building this study is called IT5 (which stands for Information Technology in the year Two T housand Think Tank). This article develops the scenarios built by the IT5 group for the international context (first subsystem). Among all t he possible scenarios four have been selected by the IT5 group. The co ntents of the others' subsystems is kept confidential due to their str ategic nature.