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Opinion | Gaza, Ukraine crises evidence of world poised on a knife-edge
- Geopolitics has reached an inflection point that will define the coming decades and push the world in an unfamiliar direction
- We need a new generation of bold political leaders with transformative ideas to lead us out of the crisis and chaos
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Throughout history, there have been pivotal moments in geopolitics that have shaped the world. The appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany in 1933; the 1947 Mountbatten Plan announcing the partition of India and eventual withdrawal of the British Empire from the Indian subcontinent; the dissolution of the Soviet Union, granting independence to the Soviet states in December 1991.
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These geopolitical events shifted the tectonic plates of the world, even if few people at the time knew the consequences of what was occurring. Today, the world is passing through a similar moment in history.
Across the globe, geopolitics has reached an inflection point that will define the coming decades. A broad array of factors have converged, from economic stagnation and ideological resurgence to global disorder and the breakout of multiple wars, pushing the world in an unfamiliar direction.
Look at the West. There was near-unanimity over imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but that unity now appears to be in the balance. Robert Fico, the new prime minister of Slovakia, campaigned against Europe’s sanctions on Russia, while the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, Switzerland’s largest political party, wants to enshrine “neutrality” into the constitution in a bid to never again pick sides in geopolitics.
Look at China. The US tech war against Beijing has entered a new phase. The recent smartphone from Huawei, said to be sanctions-proof, has reinvigorated China’s drive to build technological self-reliance. A new post-sanctions world is forming, taking US-China rivalry into more unchartered territory.
Look at Israel. The October 7 attack by Hamas has the potential to reverse decades of progress in stabilising and unifying the Middle East. This region connecting Europe and Asia stands at the precipice of change, with fragmentation being the new status quo and everything from energy to connectivity being governed by new geopolitical fault lines.
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