Conflict has largely dominated 2024, leading to international government changes, geopolitical tensions, natural disasters and human rights abuses – among other news stories, sometimes accompanied by the names of politicians responsible for questionable decisions.
1. Gaza and Ukraine
Since October 7, attention has focused on the Gaza Strip, the site of an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and triggered an Israeli military offensive that left more than 20,000 Palestinian dead.
The conflict has cemented the United States as Israel’s main supporter, despite increasing criticism at home and abroad of the work of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which saw the prospect of political normalization with the Arab world, sought for years, receding. working.
The fear of contagion of the conflict is heightened given the relations that Iran has not only with Hamas, but also with Hezbollah in Lebanon or in Yemen with the Houthi rebels, who have been protagonists in recent weeks due to their threats against shipping, constantly the Red Sea. Iran also signed a historic agreement to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed on several occasions his fears that Russia’s military aggression has faded into the background and that support from Western allies is beginning to waver. The US Congress is hesitant to approve new aid, even though the series of sanctions against Russia continues and the EU, for example, has already imposed twelve rounds.
On the military front, Ukrainian forces made some progress after launching a counteroffensive in June, but there have been no major changes on the fronts in recent weeks. Fears of a stalemate that would make the conflict chronic are growing, which is why Kiev is demanding more and better weapons.
That war has led to the biggest challenge yet to Vladimir Putin’s power in Russia: the uprising launched in June by the Wagner Group, a mercenary network led by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozin, who ultimately died in an alleged plane crash came. August 23rd. Putin washes his hands and at the same time confirms that he will run for re-election in March 2024, again without any major competitors in front of him.
2. US-China Pulse
The various wars serve to position the main powers and have thus shown the different approaches between the United States and China, which are considered the two main poles of world power. Beijing and Washington are also engaged in their special bilateral tug-of-war, ranging from commercial to political, which saw a period of particular tension after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February.
Chinese President Xi Jinping began his third term in March, the first phase of which was marked by a consolidation of power that included purges and the assertion of key geopolitical issues such as sovereignty over Taiwan, a potential powder keg. political and even military.
In the United States, on the other hand, leading politicians are taking a stand for 2024 in view of the upcoming presidential elections. The incumbent President Joe Biden will run again, while his theoretical rival Donald Trump is not giving up on running again, although he will now do so this year As the end draws to a close, he has accumulated a series of lawsuits: in addition to possible economic fraud allegations, there are more for his role in the attack on the Capitol and for questioning the 2020 election process.
3. The EU as a global actor
In 2023, Europe saw a king, Charles III, being crowned and the terrorist threat increasing in several countries, partly due to tensions in the Middle East. Finland, Slovakia and Poland have seen government changes, while the Netherlands and Portugal are already seeing the end of their respective prime ministers Mark Rutte and António Costa, with the latter overshadowed by an alleged corruption scandal.
The European Union has been forced to rethink its future as a bloc, opening itself up to new accessions such as Ukraine, despite having made no progress in the upcoming enlargement debate, failing to find a common voice in conflicts such as the Gaza Strip and suffering from situations where blockades arise, like those led by Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orbán has questioned key approaches.
In the last phase of the year, the 27 have saved a consensus such as an unprecedented regulation on artificial intelligence or a migration pact that strengthens border controls and proposes solidarity à la carte. According to the United Nations, the Mediterranean is the deadliest migration route in the world and has claimed more than 28,000 lives since 2014 – in June, half a thousand migrants died in a single shipwreck near Greece.
Outside the EU, in the Balkans, the unresolved situation in northern Kosovo has reignited tensions with Serbia, and further east, an Azerbaijani offensive in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region has driven around 100,000 refugees into Armenia and allowed Azerbaijan to make the final push To gain control of the area.
4. Changes in Latin America
In Latin America, the year began on January 1 with the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and continued just days later with an attack on the headquarters of major powers in Brasilia by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
There was also a change of government in Ecuador, where businessman Daniel Noboa took the reins after the untimely downfall of Guillermo Lasso, and in Argentina, which abruptly turned away from Peronism and turned to the far right hand in hand with Javier Milei.
In Guatemala, the elections have given rise to an unprecedented struggle led by the Public Ministry to challenge the victory of the leftist Bernardo Arévalo, who will take office in January, while in Venezuela, Chavismo and the opposition are making little attempt to to establish the foundations for an electoral process with guarantees that depends, among other things, on the review of the disqualification of key leaders such as MarÃa Corina Machado, winner of the opposition primaries in October. THE
5. Climate change
Climate change remains one of the world’s greatest challenges, with constant disagreements over the formula to combat it, as highlighted at COP28, while natural disasters around the world have claimed thousands of lives; either due to fires like those in Hawaii in August; either due to earthquakes such as those in Turkey and Syria in March (more than 50,000 dead), in Morocco in September (around 3,000) or in Afghanistan in October (nearly 1,500); either through massive floods, such as those recorded in eastern Libya, which devastated Derna and claimed more than 10,000 lives in September.
Africa is one of the continents most affected by these increasingly extreme climate phenomena, as shown by the succession of droughts and floods that are affecting the Horn of Africa, for example, while politically we are seeing the emergence of conflicts such as the one in Sudan in April 2019 In addition, there were coups – in Niger and Gabon this year alone – that resulted in the West further losing influence in favor of Russia.