As we enter the as yet unexplored opportunities of 2025, it is natural to look around and take stock of where we are and where we might be heading.
The Oxford Dictionary ‘Word of the Year 2024’ was Brain Rot, an indication of how the rise of nugget-sized bits of information as thrown at us by social media and others have degrade our ability to deal in nuances, subtleties or anything requiring more than the minimal amount of focus and attention.
The Australians, as ever, have taken a different and slightly more direct approach, and the Australian Dictionary word of the year is ‘Enshittification’, which seems to capture in one neologism everything that seems to be bad about the world today, and its seemingly unceasing and equally unavoidable degradation in every aspect of our lives.
On a global scale, the imminent ascension of Donald Trump to his second term as US president is being anticipated with a mixture of unease, anxiety and a simple understanding that for the next four years there is almost nothing that we can consider as taken in the world of global diplomacy and all of the other actions associated with it.
During the first Trump presidency there was a feeling of anticipation every time you turned on your news feed in the morning – What has he done now? – and given that he has both a better understanding of how the levers of power work in Washington, as well as an even greater belief in his own divine destiny, it is quite possible that the world we are moving into is one that will be defined by Trump’s immediate responses to whatever trigger events have happened around him.
And yet, for much of the world, Trump and his actions are completely irrelevant. For that portion of humanity – mainly in the developing south - that are facing the catastrophic impacts of climate change, political insecurity, increased militancy, internal and external wars, famine, the pressures of increased migration, lessening food security and an increasing unwillingness from traditional northern donor states to support them either through funding or other activities, the Machiavellian discussions in the corridors of power in Washinton, London, Geneva and other global centres are of little if any relevance.
The world is undoubtedly (still / again) at a critical tipping point. If solutions are to be found (and at the ISRM we believe deeply and profoundly that there are solutions to be found), then it is less a matter of technological development and more a matter of human maturity. The simple question is, are we mature enough to make the decisions that are required and undergo the social changes that are necessary if we are to find ways for engaging in meaningful ways with the challenges that we are facing and will continue to face over the coming year.
Join us to discuss these and any other issues on your mind as we hold the opening Global Crisis Watch of 2025.
