peacefare.net

The end is nigh, once again

2013 is ending with a lot of doom and gloom:

• South Sudan, the world’s newest state, is suffering bloodletting between political rivals, who coincide with its two largest tribes (Dinka and Nuer).
• The Central African Republic is imploding in an orgy of Christian/Muslim violence.
• North Korea is risking internal strife as its latest Kim exerts his authority by purging and executing his formally powerful uncle.
• China is challenging Japan and South Korea in the the East China Sea.
• Syria is in chaos, spelling catastrophe for most of its population and serious strains for all its neighbors.
• Nuclear negotiations with Iran seem slow, if not stalled.
• Egypt‘s military is repressing not only the Muslim Brotherhood but also secular human rights advocates.
• Israel and Palestine still seem far from agreement on the two-state solution most agree is their best bet.
• Afghanistan‘s President Karzai is refusing to sign the long-sought security agreement with the United States, putting at risk continued presence of US troops even as the Taliban seem to be strengthening in the countryside, and capital and people are fleeing Kabul.
• Al Qaeda is recovering as a franchised operation (especially in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and North Africa), even as its headquarters in Pakistan has been devastated.
• Ukraine is turning eastward, despite the thousands of brave protesters in Kiev’s streets.

The Economist topped off the gloom this week by suggesting that the current international situation resembles the one that preceded World War I:  a declining world power (then Great Britain, now the US) unable to ensure global security and a rising challenger (then Germany now China). Read more