The World Is Even Less Stable Than It Looks

As a journalist reporting on conflicts and wars around the world, I often get accused of having a distorted and overly pessimistic view of global affairs. “Things are not getting worse!”, people say, “They are simply getting better coverage.”

And while it is true that the internet and social media has exposed people to a far wider selection of the world's ongoing horrors, is it also possible that this pessimism is not entirely misplaced?

In a great many ways, the world is less secure than it was even a decade ago. Refugee numbers are at their highest in history. Far right or populist movements are ascendant in parts of Europe, the US and Asia – many of which care little for international norms. ISIS is all but defeated as a conventional military, but the war in Syria sees no signs of ending. All the while climate change is slowly worsening, causing yet further destabilization.

Stephen M. Walt's article for Foreign Policy attempts to look and all of these issues as a whole, and indeed comes to a similar conclusion. Reviewing what is going well in the world (The Good) as well as 2017's emergent geopolitical and humanitarian crises (The Bad), he paints a picture of a world of deepening instability. Finally, he looks at one further factor – the current lack of strong or effective global leadership in the modern day (The Ugly).

These factors combined mean that even as more and more flashpoints appear, our political structures are seemingly less and less capable of dealing with them. Such a conclusion is in stark contrast to the optimistic picture painted by many observers and historians, who have argued that increased globalization and democratization was inevitable and that the world would enter a period of unprecedented peace.

Unfortunately, these trends did not last forever, and now we may need to prepare ourselves for the rebound.