The political and humanitarian crises that have sent Venezuela into a death spiral for the past several years has now spilled over into neighboring countries and become a flashpoint in international affairs. But the protracted fight for control of the country has only meant additional suffering for its citizens. Is there any end in sight for Venezuela’s crisis?
The Solomon Islands has become the focus of a fierce geopolitical rivalry between the allies of the U.S. on one hand, and China on the other, after announcing an extensive security pact with Beijing a year and a half ago. But some are concerned that great power competition is overshadowing national development priorities.
Following the Sustainable Development Goals Summit this past September, the U.N. published a guidance paper to identify pathways to achieving the SDGs by their target date of 2030. But if those goals are to be met, even partially, the U.N. must also rethink the political underpinnings of international development cooperation.
EU officials have been careful to avoid framing Global Gateway, an infrastructure development initiative, as a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but comparisons between the two frameworks are inevitable. It is no surprise, then, that the narratives the EU uses to discuss the Global Gateway contest those surrounding the BRI.
The international order is fraying, generating uncertainty about who will intervene to resolve persistent conflicts, and who will fund humanitarian responses to human-made and natural disasters. Meanwhile, emerging crises, proxy wars and multiple hot spots pose new risks, even as the nature of transnational terrorism is evolving.