Seldom has a concatenation of circumstances across the world led to this degree of concern about the future. Many factors are responsible for this. Reckless leaders such as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who are at the centre of the ongoing conflicts, have neither the desire nor the understanding to try and end the conflicts they are involved in. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, shows equal disregard for the eventual outcome of the war in Ukraine, and displays intense myopia as to what can be done to achieve his end objective. The United States, which initially hoped that by strengthening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) it could inflict a decisive defeat on Russia, and restore the immediate post-1945 world order in Europe, finds itself in a serious dilemma.
In the meantime, Mr. Netanyahu, caught napping by the massive Hamas attack in October 2023, has reacted to it in a manner typical of his general reputation, and is venting his frustration on the citizens of Gaza — which virtually approximates to genocide. This has inflamed opinions across the world, but more specifically in West Asia, and is further widening the political and religious divide. An unexpected fallout of this has been Iran’s reemergence as a key player in determining the ‘roll of the dice’ in the affairs of this region.
