Thanks for downloading this special analysis podcast, The Correspondents Look Ahead.

This is Owen Bennett Jones and I've rounded up for top BBC journalists to forecast what

would be making the news in 2016.

If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not,

speak then unto me, or to paraphrase, it's a bit of a mugs game that was Shakespeare's

version this is ours journalists generally stick to reporting what has happened

but our gathered correspondence are off the leash today and I think one's quite safe

prediction is that 2016 will be important. Deep forces are clashing in the Middle

East, the jihadis, the armies, the ethnic groups, the liberals, all confronting each other.

The Americans will choose a new president, the Security Council will choose a new Secretary

General of the UN.

Britain may well get to vote on whether or not to remain in the European Union.

And with me to hazard some guesses as to what will happen, I have four senior BBC correspondence

that you can introduce yourselves.

I'm Lisa Doucette, BBC's Chief International Correspondent.

I'm James Robbins, BBC Diplomatic Correspondent, formerly Correspondent in Southern Africa and then in Europe.

I'm Bridget Kendall, also BBC diplomatic correspondent, former correspondent in Moscow and

Washington.

And I'm John Sopel, the BBC's North America editor in Washington at the moment.

Well that's tremendous, so between you you should know everything. So let's

just start with a very general question first of all what will 2016 be remembered

for when we gather this time in a year.

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