We are facing a period of inflection points. Everyone is focusing on the short term, but looking longer term, the future will be quite different from the past. As Bernard Winograd said, “A turn in the road isn’t the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.” So the biggest thing to fear is missing the turns.

Each year at Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s Vision, Insights & Perspectives – Americas conference (held this year in Carlsbad, Calif., Jan. 27–29), I present some of the key factors affecting the world as we see it; these are a few of the ones you should be watching.

Conflict — Conflict appears to be on the rise. Domestically, we see conflicts over race, economic inequality, gun safety and gun violence. Globally, we see conflicts over territorial integrity, as in China, Japan, Korea, Russia and the Ukraine, as well as over religious and ideological differences, as in the Middle East and the conflicts between East and West embo