World War in Sight
Written by Alfonso Elizondo
Created on Tuesday, January 3, 2017, 10:24
Views: 689
At this point in time, the global geopolitical order is threatened with collapse. Extremism, nationalism and imperialist ambitions are growing rapidly. There are now more than a dozen armed conflicts in various regions of the world that are a threat to the current world order. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), armed conflicts caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in 2016 and several million displaced persons and refugees in different countries around the world. In South Sudan there are more than 4 million people facing famine. Terrorist activity has increased, as have armed conflicts throughout the world. About 500 million people live in unstable countries and 200 million of them are living below the poverty line.
So I will try to give a very brief summary of just over a dozen of the most significant military conflicts:
1.- The crisis of Islamic State.- The Middle East is beginning to expand with a jihadist group that is seeking to impose a new caliphate based on torture, deaths and public executions of entire families. Islamic State wants to plant the flag of Allah in the White House.
2.- The Korean threat .- According to North Korean President Kim Jong, there should be a picture of him in every house and anyone who tries to leave the country will be tortured.
3.- The Ukraine-Russia War.- Ukraine was divided into a pro-Russian and an anti-Russian population. President Yankovich was was removed from power though there are those who believe it is an invasion by mutual agreement with Putin’s government.
4.- The Palestine-Israel conflict.- This conflict seems to have no solution and there are several generations of Palestinians who have grown up in the midst of debris and destroyed houses, so much so that it seems that the Palestinian territories have been wiped off the map of the Middle East.
5.- The struggle for the mining of the metallic ore known as coltan in the Congo has started a war between local tribes and militarized zones to protect the mining.
6.- The big crisis in Bahrain.- This rich city in the United Arab Emirates faces a major internal crisis because those who think differently from the ruling sheikhs can be brutally executed without trial. Although modern buildings are being constructed those who have been abandoned in the ghettos that surround the city are being completely neglected.
7. The fight for oil between China and the United States has led China to manipulate its economy trying to avoid buying US oil. This is creating strong political tension between the two nations that could lead to diplomatic or military confrontation.
8.- Ebola has resurfaced in Africa.- It is now causing a large number of deaths in Europe and is threatening to go beyond its borders. The whole world is dismayed by this threat that could cause a huge number of deaths.
9.- The Syrian Civil War.- More than 600,000 deaths have been reported to date, with more than 170,000 civilian casualties and more than 5 million displaced people. The civil war is in its fourth year of protests against the regime of Bashar al Assad. The demonstrations were violently suppressed by al-Assad’s allies, which led to armed rebellion against government forces. This war has turned into an international conflict affecting Qatar, Jordan, Iran and Lebanon, albeit far away from Western powers. Ultimately, radical Islam has taken over both sides equally.
10.- Kashmir, a territory that has been in dispute for more than 50 years.- It is a territory bordered by China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.- The dispute began in 1948 when the English left India and it was divided into two states . On the one hand there’s Pakistan with a Muslim majority and on the other, India with a non-Muslim majority. The Maharaja who ruled the province was Hindu and so Pakistan received support from India. Although the US tried to enter the conflict by providing economic aid to Pakistan, Pakistanis used those resources to invade Kashmir and then international pressure forced them to withdraw. So far the conflict is still unresolved and it has led to more than two million displaced people in the area.
11.- The conflict in Yemen.- The majority of the almost 20 million inhabitants are Sunni and control the government and the resources of the country. It’s an intermittent conflict. Although in 2008 the government and the rebels signed a truce in Doha, in cities under Al Qaeda control Islamic law is imposed with arrests and executions that have led to large displacements of the civilian population of the Shiite minority.
Addendum: In addition to the conflicts mentioned, there are other African countries with serious internal problems, such as Libya, Morocco, Mali, Somalia and Nigeria, as well as some Latin American countries with internal political crises, with Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia being the most significant. But everything suggests that life in the world as a whole could continue without violence at least until the cabinet of the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, starts working, and it’s still not known whether he will help the operation of the existing world order or try something stupid like the things he mentioned during his campaign.