Turkey is particularly concerned about the ongoing simmering conflicts near its borders, where the Kurdish issue poses a key security threat to Ankara. Turkey refuses to countenance the existence of any form of Kurdish entities in neighboring countries, and this is having a negative effect on relations between Turkey and the USA.

The geopolitical situation we find ourselves in today is not as complex as it may seem. As has been suggested many times, the Western elites are playing a chess game that cannot be won. Western leadership plays checkers or horseshoes in a grand chess match with leaders like Vladimir Putin and his advisors. It’s time we elected leaders with a clear view of the long game and not the sacrifice of pawns.

France, faced with a decline in its influence in the Sahel, seems to be gradually returning to a state of political fragmentation and instability reminiscent of medieval times. This is explained by historical variables, such as its colonial past and changing relationships with countries in the Sahel and other parts of Africa, which have evolved as a result of rising nationalism and local governance challenges. On the political level, France’s military presence, justified by the fight against terrorism, is met with growing resentment, seen as a repression of neocolonialism, exacerbating local tensions.

The globe experienced a significant power shift after the culmination of World War 2. The epitome of global hegemony at the time, the British Empire, was replaced by the United States due to the latter’s economic and scientific rise. This shift was further bolstered by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, marking an end to the Cold War. The USA became the uncontested superpower of the world. This era of the unilateral world order by the United States is known as the New World Order. However, this era did not last more than two decades.

In the post-colonial history of Africa, Egypt has steadily remained one of the most active players, whose well-established ambitions and resources form the prerequisites for Cairo’s active participation in political processes far beyond the «land of the pyramids». The recent defence and security agreement with Somalia was another step by Egypt, aimed (among other things) at creating favourable negotiating and (if necessary) strategic positions vis-à-vis the increasingly ambitious Ethiopia.

Summing up the French failures in Africa, and particularly in Mali, the US The National Interest concluded that «the era of French diplomatic dominance on the continent, which lasted for more than 100 years, has come to an end, and Paris’ claims of being one of the leading geopolitical players and a privileged partner of African countries have been seriously undermined».

The ongoing tension between Iran and Israel can be understood in the context that the latter views itself as the vanguard of Western Civilization in the region. Israeli representative stated as much on 14^th August 2024, during an emergency UNSC meeting convened to discuss his country’s bombing of Al-Tabeen school that killed about 100 civilians. Israel and The West cannot foresee themselves backing down until the entire region is brought under neocolonialism.

During the summer of 2024, Japan sharply intensified its foreign policy in its most important aspects, particularly on China and Pacific states. In our opinion, this intensification and some improvements in Japanese relations with China are primarily related to balancing its military and political activities with Western countries. On the one hand, Japan is building up its own defence potential and strengthening various multilateral formats in the field of security; on the other hand, it is trying to reduce tension in relations with China.

Pan-Africanism and the BRICS alliance represent two powerful forces that can help shape an emerging Global South. While Pan-Africanism promotes unity, solidarity and cooperation among African nations, the BRICS/BRICS+ alliance represents a group of emerging countries seeking to strengthen their economic and political influence on the international stage.

Recently, on 25^th July 2024, the Washington Post published an article “How four U.S. presidents unleashed economic warfare across the globe”, in which some interesting statistics were noted. Firstly, the US imposes three times as many sanctions as any other country (or group of countries) on earth. Secondly, that around one third of all countries on earth are on the receiving end of some form of US sanctions, and that the effectiveness of such sanctions has been, to say the least, limited, despite being the “go to” option of the US government for inflicting punishment on countries from Iran to Cuba, Russia to Myanmar.

At present, international relations are in the process of restructuring: the weight and influence of the Western powers led by the United States is really falling and the positions of those who are usually referred to as the countries of the Global South are strengthening. It is quite remarkable that, despite the obviousness of these phenomena, they are gradually beginning to be accepted by states that had previously resisted recognizing these processes.

Recently in world media covering Africa a lot of information has surfaced about French President Emmanuel Macron’s intentions to reformat Paris’ Africa policy to offset the negative consequences of its numerous failures. This was caused by an unprecedented increase in anti-French sentiment in the francophone countries of the continent and a continuous series of coups that swept the «backyard» of the former metropolis.