Just as the world was beginning to recover from one of the biggest crises in recent decades, another one has erupted in Europe.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored our common humanity while Russia’s war on Ukraine has reminded us of how fragile, interconnected and interdependent our world is. As the Chinese say, “All is one under heaven.”
Intensifying great-power confrontations and deglobalization are jeopardizing world peace and security. New crises seem to be lurking around every corner, but appropriate solutions are nowhere to be seen — not in the Far East, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe or Latin America. The popular mood has darkened, reinvigorating populism, nationalism, Islamophobia and other atavistic trends that threaten the progressive achievements humanity has made since World War II.