Is it normal to wager apocalyptical scenarios as an intellectual excercise?

This doesn't need any real explanation does it? This is the western world baby, we live off zombie movies, apocalyptic novels, and troubling news reports on ecological disaster and worldwide political tensions.

I take it one step further
Or a Leap

Not in the rough and rugged survivalist sense (Though the idea holds promise)But in the
"I wonder how country, x, y and z, will be able to respond to, a, b and c and how this will affect the world" sense (Putin in the Crimea, Chinas Rise, i'm currently doing a degree which will end me up as a international security analyst so I guess i'm in the right spot, I just want to know if thinking about global food security and nuclear proliferation is anywhere near natural in an 18 year old (That's Me)