BLUF: A Changing Geopolitical Landscape

Welcome back to the arena, everyone. We hope you had a restful and rejuvenating holiday season and that 2025 has been off to a good start.

Let’s get to it …

Last summer in Italy, the G7 gathered for what, in retrospect, looks like a political graveyard of former leaders and statespeople. Of the world leaders present at the summit, only Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, have managed to weather what has turned out to be a tumultuous year for Western democracies. 

The most recent victim of this upheaval has been Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who resigned Monday morning after almost a decade in power. Once the poster boy of the Western order, he has now become a bellwether of its potential decline, a herald of an unprecedented and uncertain new era of international politics.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early ‘90s, the G7 has represented strong, qualified, and trusted leadership on the world stage. Now, with domestic, political, and economic crises raging across the bloc, and the rise of challengers like BRICS making serious economic and military inroads against the established order, the world is left unsure where to turn for direction.

When President-elect Trump is inaugurated two weeks from now he will find himself in a significantly-changed geopolitical climate, one where western influence is waning. Regardless, our allies, and the world, look for sustained leadership in a time of great international upheaval. The question remains: are we willing to offer it?

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