When I was a child I used to blow balloons up and release them without tying them off so I could watch them careening around the room in a random manner driven by their escaping air.
It occurred to me recently that the trajectory of those balloons is not unlike what’s happening in global politics today. The war between Israel and Iran, the fighting in Gaza, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the rise of far right parties in Europe, border fighting between India and Pakistan, China’s rising belligerency and Trump’s bull in a China chop approach to world politics and the resultant rising instability of the world’s economy are just a few of the current destabilising factors that make previous political flashpoints since the end of the second world war seem relatively benign.
CARTOON REFERENCE NUMBER: 2025-23