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As geostrategic paradigm shifts and non-traditional political rearrangements continue to unfold all throughout the world, the US will press forward with its campaign of waging Hybrid Wars on China’s One Belt One Road (New Silk Road) projects, while Trump’s Presidency is the ultimate unknown variable which could shape the international situation in completely unpredictable ways.
The Clintonian Counter-Revolution against Trump will continue, albeit in different forms of varying and uncertain intensity, though one thing is for sure and it’s that there will be “deep state” tension between and within the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies.
Will there be an election? What is the new government going to look like? Where does Thailand stand when the world is going to turn right?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, hereafter also referred to simply as the Congo) could once again serve as a catalyst for a wider regional conflict and another “African World War”, while the Arab states of North Africa have a chance to move closer to the emerging Multipolar World Order in Afro-Eurasia.
Russia will continue to “clean house” in removing or functionally neutralizing unipolar-linked elements in the country whether through public or discrete actions, and this will empower the country to more assuredly practice its multi-vectored diplomacy of geopolitical balancing and thus strengthen its position as the core of the emerging Multipolar World Order.
The Russian-Japanese detente will incrementally continue, but the future of Northeast Asia is contingent on what happens with the two Koreas, as this could either lead to the formation of a Regional Quartet or two separate blocs.
India and the US strategically converge in the grandest way possible when it comes to countering China, hence why both sides entered into an unprecedented military-strategic partnership over the summer through the signing of LEMOA, which crucially allows either country to use all of the other’s military installations on a case-by-case basis.
The Eurasian Heartland can expect to immensely benefit from the Russian- and Chinese-led integrational projects being advanced in this region
The Mideast is undergoing a fundamental geopolitical reorganization as Russia spearheads a Tripartite Concert of Great Powers between itself, Iran, and Turkey aimed at ending the War on Syria, though this game-changing partnership could be offset by conflicting objectives between the two Mideast powers in Iraq, which the US will try to exploit to all feasible ends.
2016 is over, and it’s thus time to review the most significant events that occurred in each region and prognosticate how they may influence the coming year.
©2024
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