Publication

This brief looks at how various security, environmental and economic issues unfolded in 2015 and how they may play themselves out this year. The text's author specifically argues that while the COP21 negotiations on reducing carbon emissions made better progress than expected in 2015, the intensification of the war in Syria, the associated increase in Islamic State-linked attacks on Western and Russian targets, the growing Western interest in intervening in Libya, and the collapse of Saudi-Iranian relations pose major threats to global security. It doesn’t help that these problems are piling up just when the Chinese economy is faltering and generalized economic risks are rising.