Some ghosts from 2025 will haunt us in 2026 as well

As the year draws to a close, tradition demands that General Disequilibrium provide a perspective on the year gone by.

- RAJRISHI SINGHAL

However, in the spirit of bygones being bygones, it might be instructive to dwell on some of the issues that raised their ugly heads during the year and are likely to keep popping up in some form or another during the new year.

The ignoble gong for ‘most dangerous trend of the year’ must go to the stubborn conflicts that have refused to settle for a peaceful resolution, despite global intermediation and mass decimation of life and property. Many of these conflicts are likely to continue well into 2026. During his first papal tour overseas, Pope Leo XIV told a gathering of Turkish authorities, civil society delegates and members of the diplomatic corps at Ankara that, piecemeal, a third world war is being waged. “We are now experiencing a phase marked by a heightened level of conflict on the global level, fuelled by prevailing strategies of economic and military power...The future of humanity is at stake. The energies and resources absorbed by this destructive dynamic are being diverted from the real challenges that the human family should instead be facing together today, namely peace, the fight against hunger and poverty, health and education, and the protection of creation.”