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Further Reflections on the Year of Elections – Where Are We Now?
August 20, 2025
By David Chmiel
In a world where global politics and security seem to shift with every headline, understanding the forces behind today’s volatility is more crucial than ever. This article takes you inside the aftermath of 2024’s “Year of Elections,” exploring how voter pessimism, rising populism, and unpredictable leaders are redrawing the map of international risk. Discover why businesses and analysts alike must stay agile in this era of relentless change.
Writing about the current global political and security environment puts me in
mind of the Greek legend of Sisyphus, the prince who was condemned to spend eternity pushing an enormous boulder up a steep hill, only for it to roll back to the bottom every time he approached the summit. Such is the relentless pace of change in our world that, just when you think events have achieved something approaching a steady-state equilibrium, something new arises to alter one’s perspective fundamentally. The boulder rolls back down the hill and you trudge downwards to commence the analytical process all over again. Nevertheless, it is vital to adopt a longer-term perspective and to question assumptions made about the future direction of global political and economic events.
The forces driving that relentless pace of change are influenced, in no small part, by the decisions made by voters in elections around the world in 2024. The fact that an estimated half of the world’s population live in countries that held some form of national election last year led to it being dubbed “The Year of Elections” and when 2024 ended, the global political landscape looked remarkably different than it did at the year’s start. In many of those elections, control of governments and legislatures changed outright. In others, incumbent leaders and parties retained power, but often with reduced majorities that forced them into coalitions with other parties, thereby constraining their mandates and injecting additional uncertainty into political analysis.
At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I wrote a pair of articles for The Secured Lender looking at the immediate aftermath of “The Year of Elections.” Not surprisingly, much has changed since. President Donald Trump took office as the 47th president of the United States and set about shattering long-held assumptions about US domestic and foreign policy, not least in his announcement of “Liberation
Day” tariffs targeting most countries around the world. Voters have continued to go to the polls albeit in at least two cases – Canada and Australia – previously unpopular governments managed to secure re-election amidst the economic uncertainty and bursts of nationalism unleashed by US trade policy. India and Pakistan appear to have averted a major war in South Asia, the war in Ukraine rumbled on and the conflict in the Middle East threatened to expand as Israel and then the US attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. At the risk of embarking on another Sisyphean climb up the mountain, it seems as good point as any to asses these recent developments and consider what further insights can be gleaned in the aftermath of “The Year of Elections”.
Please click here to continue reading.
Writing about the current global political and security environment puts me in
mind of the Greek legend of Sisyphus, the prince who was condemned to spend eternity pushing an enormous boulder up a steep hill, only for it to roll back to the bottom every time he approached the summit. Such is the relentless pace of change in our world that, just when you think events have achieved something approaching a steady-state equilibrium, something new arises to alter one’s perspective fundamentally. The boulder rolls back down the hill and you trudge downwards to commence the analytical process all over again. Nevertheless, it is vital to adopt a longer-term perspective and to question assumptions made about the future direction of global political and economic events.
The forces driving that relentless pace of change are influenced, in no small part, by the decisions made by voters in elections around the world in 2024. The fact that an estimated half of the world’s population live in countries that held some form of national election last year led to it being dubbed “The Year of Elections” and when 2024 ended, the global political landscape looked remarkably different than it did at the year’s start. In many of those elections, control of governments and legislatures changed outright. In others, incumbent leaders and parties retained power, but often with reduced majorities that forced them into coalitions with other parties, thereby constraining their mandates and injecting additional uncertainty into political analysis.
At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I wrote a pair of articles for The Secured Lender looking at the immediate aftermath of “The Year of Elections.” Not surprisingly, much has changed since. President Donald Trump took office as the 47th president of the United States and set about shattering long-held assumptions about US domestic and foreign policy, not least in his announcement of “Liberation
Day” tariffs targeting most countries around the world. Voters have continued to go to the polls albeit in at least two cases – Canada and Australia – previously unpopular governments managed to secure re-election amidst the economic uncertainty and bursts of nationalism unleashed by US trade policy. India and Pakistan appear to have averted a major war in South Asia, the war in Ukraine rumbled on and the conflict in the Middle East threatened to expand as Israel and then the US attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. At the risk of embarking on another Sisyphean climb up the mountain, it seems as good point as any to asses these recent developments and consider what further insights can be gleaned in the aftermath of “The Year of Elections”.
Please click here to continue reading.
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