Global Impact Statements

UK - impoverished

US - embroiled and embittered

Ukraine - imperilled but embraced

Russia - embattled and imploding

EU - imperfect

China - emboldened

South Africa - implicated

India - inbetween

UN - impotent

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G20: "top table" of major nations - USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, UK, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa

The New, Emerging World Order:-

Two armed camps: global line-up of advanced liberal democracies ranged against Eurasian autocracies

New strategic priority: deterring the despots and crackpots of CRINK

'Interbloc[-plus]' - G7 + NATO + European Political Community/Council of Europe + ANZUS/AUKUS [+ South Korea + Israel] *

Anti-Western Bloc/'Sino-Russian [Authoritarian] Axis [of Evil]'/'CRINK' - China + Russia + Iran + North Korea [+ Belarus + Cuba + Nicaragua + Venezuela] **

         ↓ 

  BRICS - Brazil + Russia + India + China + South Africa [just joined: Egypt + Ethiopia + Iran + UAE] ***

         ↑ 

Global South - rest of world

* a loose alignment of prosperous, liberal, democratic nations with free market economies, coming together in a series of overlapping multinational groups; the free, developed world, formerly the First World

** an unholy alliance of the anti-liberal forces of socialist nationalism (Russia, China, etc.) and Islamist militancy (Iran, etc.); an illiberal alliance or militarist axis; coterie of aggressive, oppressive regimes

*** an international forum of emerging powers conceived as a counterbalance to Western dominance

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BRICS Summit

The desire in many countries for a multipolar world, that is, an end to the (waning) economic and geopolitical dominance of what we sometimes used to call, a little tellingly, the First World, is understandable; however, this should not blind anyone to the dangers of rushing to replace the much resented leadership of admittedly somewhat self-interested liberal democracies by lining up behind aggressively hegemonic, autocratic powers with a recently proven appetite for warmongering and expansionism. All should be wary of supporting the emerging Sino-Russian Axis as it poses a clear and present threat to the independence of adjacent nations and to peace generally. A multipolar world may be seen as an improvement on the current world order in some ways, although it is likely to prove less stable. Unfortunately, what is in prospect is a new bi-polar world order balanced on a knife edge...