2023 has once again been a year that has not been calm for those people, who follow international or geopolitical news.
After leaving aside the health and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and with high inflation rates in the eurozone. Along with this, during this year, the Barbie and Oppenheimer phenomenon made big headlines. Jokes aside, 2023 has been defined by explosive and unsuspected tensions that have altered the international balance.
To avoid any Christmas discussion from spoiling your holidays or to have a topic of conversation with the "brother-in-law" on duty, in this article as a summary, the most notable events in the world are mentioned. This article will allow you to refute occurrences or some information from a family member about the main international events.
The year began with the inauguration of Lula da Silva as president of Brazil. At a ceremony in which the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, who had lost the elections was not present, a week later Bolsonaro supporters stormed the square of the three powers The Brazilian Congress and the Supreme Court of Brazil in the Brasilia capital. The protests, which were very reminiscent of the assault on the Capitol in the United States, cried out against the new president and denounced that the elections had been a fraud.
January also served China to completely reopen its borders and definitively end the zero covid policy that had been weighing down the Chinese economy for months. Another hot spot was France due to the reform of the Macron government that wanted to raise the retirement age to 64 years.
Finally, January would end with the decision of several European countries to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine where the Ukrainian government was already preparing a major offensive for the summer but let's not get ahead of ourselves because February was going to begin with the appearance of a mysterious Chinese spy balloon in the skies over the United States a balloon that would finally be shot down by an F-22 fighter, after which countries such as Canada, Colombia or Romania reported strange elements in their skies.
In February, we were hit by fateful news, the recording of an earthquake in Turkey and Syria. This earthquake caused nearly 60,000 deaths. The earthquake that reached the doors of the Turkish general elections did not prevent Recep Tayipp Erdogan from repeating victory against the odds.
At the beginning of this month of February, the United States and the Philippines agreed to expand Washington's military presence in the Southeast Asian nation, including access to four "strategic" bases in the Philippine archipelago. Tension in the South China Sea has been increasing this year, with greater clashes between the People's Republic of China and other actors fighting for control of this strategic sea lane.
Likewise, on February 27, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, closed an elusive agreement on Northern Ireland, which had become the last major obstacle to implementing the Brexit.
In March, the US Federal Reserve's interest rate increases claimed its first victim, this being Silicon Valey Bank. Alarms went off around the world in case there were many more banks affected, however both the treasury and the United States government came to the rescue to calm the markets and prevent the situation from spreading, avoiding economic disaster.
Likewise, in March, thanks to the mediation of China, Iran and Saudi Arabia reestablished their bilateral ties, broken by Riyadh in 2016 after the assault of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by a mob of Iranians. Since then, both states have vied for regional leadership in the Middle East.
April began with the entry of Finland into NATO and continued with a milestone in world history. For the first time, India surpassed China in population. The truth is that April and May were quite quiet months in which geopolitical news was somewhat more stopped but this was the calm that preceded the storm.
The June storm began with the death of the historic Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. The international board became heated again on June 16, Russia confirmed the transfer of a first batch of nuclear weapons to Belarus. Simultaneously, Ukraine had already launched its long-awaited spring-summer offensive.
This offensive was postponed to be able to count on the new brigades trained in the NATO countries. It came face to face with the dense Russian minefields, despite the fact that the Ukrainians advanced in three axes, they failed to take major strategic objectives. However, Kyiv lifted the blockade that the Russian navy had mounted on Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.
The disappointment of the results of the offensive has caused the first doubts in Ukraine's allies, who increasingly hesitate when it comes to sending aid to the Ukrainian government. What we have to focus on is something that happened in June in the middle of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The high casualties suffered by the Russian forces caused enormous tensions between the Wagner group and the Russian Ministry of Defense, which, fearful of the power that the Wagner group was gaining, ordered the members of Wagner to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense itself.
This caused the leader of the Wagner group Jevgeni Prigo to rebel against the Ministry, starting a march towards Moscow, taking the cities of Borosnez, Lipet and Rostov Ddon without resistance. Wagner's column stopped at the gates of Moscow and its leader reached an agreement with Putin so that the Wagners could go into exile in Belarus.
Two months after an incident on the plane in which Yevgeni Prigozhin was traveling, Russians killed all its occupants in what Putin himself described as an unfortunate accident, by then the Wagner group had been displaced to Africa where a lot of things were happening. .
On the one hand, in Sudan, a war broke out between the government and the armed militia called RSF , a Sudanese paramilitary force led by the vice president of the Sovereign Council and number two in the Army, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias "Hemedti" a war that continues to today it is still valid.
Other countries such as Gabon and Niger also suffered coups d'état, repeating a trend that has occurred throughout the Sahel. Past coups in Burkina Faso or Mali have in common that they have been carried out by factions of the army that had fallen into disgrace.
These factions have looked to Russia for an ally that acts as a counterweight to the influence that the United States and France have in the governments of the region. To this latest coup in Niger, a coalition of countries led by Nigeria and supported by France has responded with the announcement of a military operation to restore constitutional order in Niger, which to date has not yet taken place.
At the end of July, general elections were held in Spain. Pedro Sánchez overtook them due to the psoe's failure in the municipal and regional elections, despite the fact that the PP was the party with the most votes. Pedro Sánchez managed to obtain the necessary support to once again revalidate the position of president. To do this, Sánchez reached an agreement with Bildu (undisclosed), Sumar, BNG, PNV, ERC, Junts and Coalión Canaria.
At the end of August, the BRICS Summit was held. As usual, it ended without major agreements. What they agreed upon was to invite new states to be part of the organization. These new members could be: Argentina (recently withdrew its candidacy), Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.
September saw the outbreak of a new war between Azerbaijan and the Republic of Artsakh. However, this former region, with an Armenian majority, did not even have the support of Armenia. As a result, they surrendered within hours of the Azeri offensive beginning. Russia, whose peacekeepers were in charge of bringing order to the area, did not intervene and since then, Armenia has moved away from Russia and closer to the US and the EU. For its part, the Republic of Artsakh announced its dissolution and more than 100,000 people were displaced to Armenian territory.
All these conflicts were eclipsed on October 7. The terrorist group, Hamas attacked across the border of the Gaza Strip. This unjustified attack claimed the lives of 1,300 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages.
The attack was aimed at blowing up the Abraham Accords and gaining clout within Palestine's own internal affairs. These agreements brought Israel and several Arab states, traditional allies of Palestine, closer together. Saudi Arabia could be part of this agreement. This unjustified attack caused the Israelis to first engage in a campaign of aerial and artillery bombing followed by a ground operation that is still fighting to take control of Gaza and eliminate Hamas.
The density of the Gazan population and Israel's policy of minimizing its own casualties as much as possible has caused thousands of civilians to be victims and displaced by the bombings. At the same time, Hamas has used hostages, civilians, and schools and hospitals as human shields. For now, tension has been limited in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser extent in the West Bank and southern Lebanon.
However, the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and allies of Iran, are attacking and kidnapping ships in the Red Sea, harming commercial transit in a completely strategic area from a commercial and logistical point of view.
This 2023, would leave us with some more details, the Russians began an offensive, especially in Avdiivka, which is being a carnage for them, without any notable progress being made so far and turning the war into a conflict of attrition.
In mid-November, changes occurred since the start of the civil war in 2021 in Myanmar (Burma). The offensive by an alliance of armed ethnic groups (more than 17) based in the north has taken key cities, galvanized groups from elsewhere and exposed the weakness of the military junta's troops.
In 2021, after the coup, the armed group People's Defense Force was also born, which represents the national unity government in exile, evicted by the Tatmadaw, the armed forces, which assumed leadership of the country. This conflict has caused 200 thousand people to be displaced.
It is important that, in mid-November, the leaders of the United States, Joe Biden, and China, Xi Jinping, held a face-to-face meeting in San Francisco (California) . The two leaders held talks for nearly four hours. Direct communications between the armies of both countries were reactivated and the persecution of producers of fentanyl chemical precursors was tightened in China.
At the end of November, elections were held in the Netherlands. The large victory of Geert Wilders, in the general elections of Wednesday, November 22, not only caused a huge surprise but also came to shake the traditional political forces in the Netherlands and in the European Union.
In turn, at the end of November 2023, the diplomatic crisis between Algiers and Madrid cooled down. At the beginning of the month, Algeria asked Spain for approval to send a new ambassador , thus showing its intention to have an Algerian representative in Madrid again almost 20 months after withdrawing him. It still weighs a commercial block from Algiers. Algeria withdrew its ambassador in March 2022, after the sudden change in the Spanish position on Western Sahara, very favorable to the interests of Rabat.
For its part, the tension would reach Ibero-America. Venezuela wants to control the oil, gas and strategic mineral reserves of the Esequivo that officially belong to Guyana in this situation. Both states are militarizing their border while Brazil and the United States have also sent troops to the area in case anything happens.
The next event makes us go to Argentina. In the general elections, the candidate, Javier Milei, made history by winning the elections and winning the presidency. Argentina has gone through a critical economic situation due to the mismanagement of previous governments.
At the beginning of December, almost 200 countries participated in the United Nations climate summit (COP28), held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
The delegations have decided to put an end to their dependence on fossil fuels. Delegates agreed to launch a transition “away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a fair, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, to achieve net zero by 2050.
Likewise, 22 countries, including Great Britain, France and the United States, among other states, commit to tripling their nuclear capacity to reduce fossil fuels. According to their legations, the agreement was essential to meet the nations' climate commitments.
For their part, some developed countries offered 700 million US dollars to replenish the fund to mitigate the losses and damages suffered by the most vulnerable countries to the onslaught of climate change.
Last but not least, the last event to highlight was in Chile. Recently, Chile voted in a referendum to ratify or not a new constitutional proposal to replace the Magna Carta in force since the dictatorship and after rejecting in 2022 a first radically opposed and progressive initiative. The "against" vote was imposed by 55.8% to 44.2%. This is another blow to one of the key promises of the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric. This setback occurs on the eve of Chilean local elections in 2024.
Along with this, in the following article, a list and note of key events (elections and current affairs) that will mark this coming 2024 will be made.
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