In recent times, it has increasingly appeared as if the world is closer to a third major global conflict that at any other time since the height of the cold war. In the middle east, the state of Israel continues to battle Hamas terrorists in the Gaza strip and the nation of Palestine. In eastern Europe, a bloody conflict has raged in Ukraine for several years with no end in sight. The American President, Joe Biden has done very little to alleviate international tensions. Ultimately, as the 2024 general presidential election draws nearer, there are many issues that the incumbent is faring quite poorly on.
But it is perhaps the international climate which poses an equal threat to America’s well-being in comparison to the country’s domestic problems. Following Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Vladimir Putin and Russia invaded the eastern European nation of Ukraine in the winter of 2022. The two nations have been locked in a bloody stalemated conflict since its commencement. While Russia made initially swift gains in territory, a strong resistance from Ukrainian forces caused the country to change its objectives, and the conflict has been concentrated in the eastern portion of the country for over a year. In an address at a summit in Spain, the leader of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed about fifty leaders of respective European nations. Zelenskyy continued to call for assistance from the EU and claimed that the Ukrainian war effort must be supported by every western nation in the region. Zelenskyy asserted that if Ukraine should falter in the conflict, that Russia would threaten neighboring nations and poses the threat of invasion.
Tensions in Europe continue to rise. Recently, the state of Albania made the military decision to turn a Soviet era military base into a hub for NATO operations. The base, now refurbished, is NATO’s first aerial installment in the general western Balkans European region.
