The world looks short on political will |
2025 will be remembered as the year of the demise of the international order. Wars multiplied. Displacement reached historic levels. Humanitarian agencies faced the paradox of growing needs and shrinking resources. Multilateral institutions weakened and military spending crowded out social protection. As the year closes, the global community confronts the uncomfortable truth that an even more unstable 2026 looms.
Conflict monitoring organisations have documented the sharpest rise in organised violence since the end of the Cold War. Civil wars have deepened, regional wars have expanded and political violence has become entrenched across fragile and middle-income states.
Meanwhile, humanitarian funding has declined sharply with the rise of right-wing politics, and domestic political pressures, donor fatigue and strategic rivalries have hollowed out multilateral commitments. Against this backdrop, the world must brace for what’s to come in 2026 — the list is by no means exhaustive but it gives a fair indication.
In Sudan, what began as a power struggle between rival military factions has become one of the world’s gravest humanitarian disasters, made far worse by external actors, who have armed, funded and politically protected the warring parties, turning Sudan into a proxy battleground.
Mediation efforts have been fragmented and competitive. Sanctions have been selective and humanitarian access subordinated to geopolitical interests. The outcome: mass killing, ethnic cleansing, sexual violence, advancing famine and the displacement of millions. Competing international actors have narrowed the space for negotiation, prolonging the war and making the possibility of a political settlement look even more remote.
In Gaza and the West Bank, the air strikes and the bombing may have stopped but the bulldozers are active and settler violence has expanded. Israel violates the ceasefire with impunity, retains control over large swathes of Gaza and........