The world order and the new geopolitical trends

Abstract

In the early years of the new century, the world has seen a series of startling developments beginning with the attacks carried out by Salafi jihadism, which remains a major threat today, and ending with the recent emergence of global cyber warfare. Events such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its military support for Ukrainian separatists, the civil war in Syria, China’s aggressive stance in the South China Sea, the initiation of a new Silk Road, Brexit and the Trump phenomenon all seem destined to reshape the current international panorama. The diminishing importance of the old geopolitical factors, the growing force of economic interests, the dominance of emerging technologies, the information revolution and cyberspace are transforming the geopolitical universe. With the great geopolitical dilemmas facing international security today and the geopolitical trends likely to materialise in the near future, it seems worthwhile to outline some of the features of the new world order that will accompany us in the first third of the twenty-first century.