January – Sudan humanitarian crisis + Ram Mandir
With the start of the new year in January, the world – as it often does – saw a mix of international incidents, some more positive… and some more negative. January marked six months since the start of the civil war in Sudan and saw the humanitarian crisis in the African nation only worsen. Human rights abuses and other horrible crimes continued to be committed against civilians and innocent citizens, while humanitarian organizations lacked the public attention necessary on a global scale to actually be able to effectively distribute aid and much needed resources. Yet, global leaders continued to remain largely silent, further exacerbating this crisis.
On the other hand, hundreds of miles away, countless Hindus in India had cause to celebrate with the much awaited reopening of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, after a decades (if not centuries) long fight. Ayodhya, which is widely considered to be the birthplace of Lord Rama, one of the most prominent Hindu gods, has long been a point of contention for Hindus and Muslims in India, alternately housing a temple, and then a mosque. After the destruction of the latter by Hindu nationalists in 1992, the area became a point of contention, exacerbating sectarian tensions and becoming a powerful tool for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his bid for reelection. Yet despite all the controversy surrounding the temple in Ayodhya, its reopening was still a joyous occasion for Hindus, both in India and abroad, causing thousands to flock to the Northern Indian city to pray and celebrate.
February – 2 years into Russia-Ukraine
February marked a more morose anniversary: two years since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Violence broke out between the two neighboring nations in February of 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk – eastern provinces of Ukraine, and hasn’t ceased since, leading to the loss of countless civilian lives. Tensions were only exacerbated in October when North Korea appeared to take a more prominent role in providing aid to Russia; on the other hand, the whole dynamic of the war holds the potential to rapidly change, as Trump is set to re-assume the role of president in mid-January.
March – ISIS in Russia
Fears over terrorism spiked sharply in March with a terrorist attack in Russia, perpetrated by ISIS. Unfolding Crocus City Hall, a concert hall in Moscow that was densely populated at the time, the attack left 137 dead and more than a 100 people injured. While the Russian government initially accused Ukraine of committing this heinous terrorist attack, much to the censure and condemnation of many Western nations, it took an extremely proactive approach to the attack, rapidly apprehending 11 suspects, including 4 individuals from Tajikistan.
April – Kenya Flood
April was largely a quiet month on the geopolitical front, but still saw extreme devastation and loss of life with the floods in Kenya. Starting in March, floods have overtaken Kenya, whose southeastern border is largely open to the Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of over a hundred people and the displacement of thousands. The floods were largely a product of the heavy rains the eastern African nation experienced from March through May of 2024, as well as the phenomena of El Niño and the positive Indian Ocean Dipole. Exacerbating all these factors, however, is the growing global warming that’s impacting nations across the world and leading to drastic and unpredictable changes in the climate.
May – U.S. tariffs on China
May saw the rising potential for heightened tensions between the United States and China, as U.S. President Joe Biden raised tariffs on $18 billion worth of imports from China. The action, according to the president’s office, was taken in an effort to “protect American workers and businesses” and increase the competitiveness of American manufacturers and companies in an attempt to counter China’s “unfair trade practices”. The raised tariff also comes after numerous efforts by Biden’s administration to create new manufacturing jobs, construct new factories, invest hundreds of billions of dollars in new businesses, and bolster the American economy as a whole, mere months before Election Day in early November.
June – Mexico elects first female President
History was made in June, as Mexico elected its first female president: Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum won a landslide victory with 59% of the electoral votes, nearly twice that of her closest opponent and almost 6 times that of the other opposition candidate. While some worry that Sheinbaum’s election could lead to another spell of one-party rule (like the 70-year long episode that ended in 2002) especially given Sheinbaum’s backing by López Obrado – one of the most popular but divisive political figures Mexico has seen, many others see Sheinbaum as a better alternative than her opponent, who was backed by establishment opposition parties that many associate with corruption. In addition to the great leaps forward Sheinbaum made for women in Mexico with her election, she has also played a pivotal role in climate change-related research, serving on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Sheinbaum’s victory is made all the more impactful in light of the fact that Mexico has one of the highest rates of murder against women, lending hope to many Mexicans, as she took office on October 1.
July – Trump immunity ruling
Just as America geared up to celebrate 248 years of independence with the Fourth of July, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a landmark ruling on a case surrounding the events of the January 6 Capitol Hill riots: presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official actions taken while in office. As former president (and as of November 2024, president-elect) Donald Trump redoubled his efforts on the campaign trail, the decision holds the power to change the very trajectory of the election season and could potentially weaken the cases of the many prosecutors trying Trump for various crimes. But outside of the scope of the election and the cases Trump is embroiled in, many fear that this decision could allow the power of the president to grow unchecked.
On one hand, according to CNN, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Robers stated, in his majority opinion, that “under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential power requires that a former president have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office…At least with respect to the president’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute…The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official…But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution.”
On the other hand, according to CNN, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent, stated that this decision would “[l]et the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.”
Regardless of how the ruling may play out, what’s undeniable is that the Supreme Court ruling on this case will shape both politics and governance in the United States for years, if not decades, to come, something that will certainly have profound impacts on geopolitics as well.
August – Taliban in Afghanistan
August kicked off with rather somber news: the third anniversary of the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan. Originally formed to fight against the Soviet-supported Afghan government in 1994, the Taliban soon grew into a powerful organization, taking control of the Afghan government, imposing strict, religion-based laws, providing asylum to other terrorist organizations, and even orchestrating terrorist attacks. The US deployed troops in the early 2000s to counter the growing prevalence of the Taliban, but after much outcry, pulled them back at the end of August of 2021. The Taliban almost instantaneously assumed power and, despite assurances that they would curtail their more conservative laws, implemented policies that infringed on the basic rights of many in the nation, especially girls and women, continuing to hold power through August of 2024.
September – Sri Lanka Marxist president + Houthi missile attacks
September saw the continuation of the trend of extremist attacks that started in March with the Houthi missile attacks on various ships and tankers, as well as Israel. The attacks, perpetrated by the Houthi rebels, a religiously rooted pro-Iran group based in Yemen, were widely considered to be a show of support for Hamas and a way of pushing Israel to end the war, especially given the religious roots of both the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Houthis.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Sri Lanka held its presidential election which gave rise to the election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the island nation’s Marxist and left-leaning coalition. Dissanayake’s election came just two years after one of the worst economic crises Sri Lanka has ever seen, which, combined with severe foreign debt, led to widespread fuel shortages and extreme inflation. This economic turmoil eventually led Sri Lankans to overthrow the corrupt and nepotistic government of the Rajapaksas, causing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to be replaced by an opposition politician, Ranil Wickremesinghe. Wickremesinghe proved to be not much better than his predecessor, allowing the corruption and nepotism that defined the Rajapaksas’ reign to continue unchecked. Finally, in September of 2024, Dissanayake was elected president, a welcome change for many in Sri Lanka and one that holds a hope for a better future.
October – far-right Freedom Party + India-Canada relations
Like September, October saw a major political upheaval, this time in Austria, with the election of the Freedom Party during the European nation’s parliamentary election. The Freedom Party, or FPO, is a far-right political party, tracing its roots all the way back to the remains of the Nazi party after World War II. The election of the FPO made history, marking both the first time a Nazi-rooted party won a nation’s election and the first Nazi-rooted party to form a European government after the end of World War II in 1945 and the fall of Hitler.
October also marked yet another somber anniversary: one year since the start of the war in Gaza. As of October 2024, 40,000 Palestinians and 1000 individuals in Israel had died as a result of the conflict, not to mention the 90,000 injured Palestinians and 7,000 injured Israelis, and almost 2 million displaced Palestinians and 60,000 displaced Israelis.
In addition to the events in Austria and Gaza, October was also defined by the growing tensions between India and Canada, after arguments surrounding Indian government involvement in the death of Canadian national and alleged Khalistani terrorist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was an Indian-born Sikh and a member of the Khalistan movement, which advocates for the formation of a new Sikh nation from the state of Punjab and other Sikh-majority regions in India; he was also thought to be a member of the Khalistan Tiger Force, a militant group illegal in India, and a criminal under India’s Terrorist Act. After being fatally shot in Vancouver, Nijjar and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death inflamed tensions between India and Canada, causing the latter to withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats from India. Tensions sparked to life again in October 2024 with the supposed discovery of evidence that confirmed the Indian government’s involvement in Nijjar’s death, causing both nations to expel the other’s diplomats from their country.
November – UK Tobacco law + Maori protests
The month of November was largely quiet on the global stage. The early weeks of November saw the growing prevalence of a unique bill into the UK Parliament, one that would effectively result in a total ban on tobacco a few years after it went into effect. Not only does this bill ban smoking or vaping in certain public places and limit the branding tactics companies can use to attract young consumers, but it also sets a minimum age for the purchase of tobacco, one that increases year by year after it goes into effect, until it effectively makes it illegal for the entire population to purchase tobacco products.
November also saw the presidential election in the United States, which gave rise to the reelection of former president and now president-elect Donald Trump and a general rise in Republican elected officials across the board.
In addition, a series of protests unfolded across New Zealand as residents of the island nation protested the introduction of a bill into Parliament that threatened to seriously undermine the rights of the Maori people. New Zealanders of all walks of life – Maori and not – came together across the nation to protest the bill, giving rise to a 9-day march across the nation, protests and peaceful demonstrations in the nation’s capital, and even the performance of a traditional Maori dance, the haka, on the Parliament floor.
December – End of the al-Assad regime + martial law in South Korea
Despite little over half the month having actually passed, December proved to be a tumultuous month on the global stage. First and foremost, citizens in the Republic of Korea experienced martial law for a few brief hours, before it was repealed by a unanimous vote by the South Korean parliament. The event served to not only profoundly impact the global economy and stock market, but highlighted the nation’s political turmoil between the Democratic Party of Korea, which maintains control of Parliament, and President Yoon Suk Yeol’s party, which holds sway over the presidency.
Less than a week after this exercise of highly centralized – and almost authoritarian – presidential power, Syria saw the fall of the al-Assad regime, ending a brutal 50 years under a dictatorial government. Bashar al-Assad, the sitting president prior to the fall of the regime, was ousted, as an opposition group backed by the Syrian people stormed the Syrian capital of Damascus, and was forced to seek refuge in Moscow. While the occasion also facilitated the illumination of the horrible atrocities perpetrated by the al-Assad regime, included prisons full of political prisoners, often housing torture chambers, the fall of the al-Assads proves to be a beacon of hope for the coming years, holding the promise for a better and perhaps more democratic future.
Conclusion –
As 2024 comes to an end, we can hardly deny that 2024 has been an eventful year on the global stage. And at the same time, we can’t help but notice certain patterns over the course of the last 12 months.
Global tensions grew all the more heightened with the continuation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, increased US tariffs on China, deteriorating relations between India and Canada, and the first anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas. Terrorism also grew more prevalent with the ISIS terrorist attack in Moscow, the third anniversary of the Taliban resuming control of Afghanistan, and the Houthi missile attacks in the middle east.
Political polarization also seemed to be on the rise in the latter half of the year with the Trump immunity ruling in July, the election of a Marxist president in Sri Lanka in September, the rise of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria in October, and the brief imposition of martial law in South Korea just this month. Humanitarian crises also unfolded with the horrible floods ravaging Kenya and the continuance of the Sudan humanitarian crisis.
But at the same time, countless groups of people had cause to celebrate: the reopening of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in January, the election of Mexico’s first female president in June, the introduction of a highly protective tobacco law in the UK and a collective effort in New Zealand to combat a bill that would undermine Maori Rights in November, and the fall of the al-Assad regime in December.
As we reflect on the events of the past (almost) 365 days, bad things have certainly occurred. And it’s imperative that we address them in 2025. But, we must also acknowledge all the good that has happened, all the change we have created, all the positive things we have accomplished.
It is imperative that, as we look back on the events of 2024, we remember, in the words of Albus Dumbledore, that “happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light”.
