As the school year comes to a close, so too does International Insight’s coverage of geopolitics and current events from all across the world.

There’s been much to learn this year from all that has unfolded across the world – from the multiple waves of new tariffs to the political pendulum swinging to new heights to complex international entanglements to the dangerous potential of technology and social media.

There has also been much to celebrate – the discovery of a lost city, a once-in-a-lifetime religious moment, and the humanity that permeated every fiber of the various crises we faced this year.

All that being said, here is my biggest takeaway from geopolitics in 2024-2025:

People over politics. 

We’ve gotten into the habit of conflating agendas and propaganda with the actual people on the ground. Whether it’s the war between Israel and Hamas or the growing political polarization of our world, we’ve ceased to look at people as who they actually are: people. Instead, we’ve chosen to define large swaths of different groups – many of which we know little about or don’t fully understand – by a tangentially related ideology or group or movement. This destructive habit prevents us from making any actual progress when it comes to resolving major crises. 

Domestically, we’ve seen the polarization of political parties on both ends of the spectrum, splitting Americans down the middle and forcing them to choose sides in an artificial conflict that will ultimately serve no one. Internationally, we’ve seen how passion and strong emotions over a particular conflict make a rocky transition to real life, promoting xenophobia and nativism and, more often than not, leading to major loss of life as a result. 

Choosing to continue down this path will only hurt us, the average everyday people bearing the brunt of the effects of this political chess game to merely accumulate power – a game in which we have inadvertently become pawns. 

Rather than continue to buy into this line of thinking where we define an individual by an ideology long before we’ve actually met them, perhaps we can attempt to separate politics from people. Perhaps we can hold our beliefs over various conflicts across the globe while still empathizing with the trauma and hardships faced by the people caught in between… on both sides. Perhaps we can still staunchly believe in certain policies without becoming a puppet for a political party or ostracizing our friends who disagree.

Perhaps, we can put people over politics for the sake of peace.

International Insight will resume on August 13 for the 2025-2026 school year. In the meantime, take a look at this map of International Insight’s coverage of the international incidents in the 2024-2025 school year.