Foretell of conflicts undergoing polar shift (4)

I believe the answer is:
warn
'foretell' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for warn that I've seen before include "Notify in advance of danger" , "Alert" , "Give a caution to" , "Notify of potential risk" , "Tip off" .)
