The global landscape in 2025 is disturbingly unstable. The phenomenon of conflict is not being the exception but the rule across continents. At the same time, we are experiencing climate emergency, fracturing economies, and authoritarian politics. And the one who has come back into the spotlight as a surprise in this volatile picture is Donald J. Trump, the former U.S. president with his isolationist avuncular and protectionist policies now trying to reinvent himself as an international dealmaker.
With war, the climate collapse, and breakages of institutions sweeping the globe, the paradox becomes even more obvious: the world is on fire and Trump who was once a political arsonist is now selling himself as fire rescuer.
The New World Disorder
The concept of a post-Cold War international order, constructed on the basis of American primacy, of the primacy of NATO, of liberal institutions has been disintegrated. Instead, we are seeing an upheaval of a new world order, unstable, multipolar and poorly governed.
- In Europe, the war in Russia-Ukraine is already achieving two years and more than 500,000 people were killed (source: Kyiv Independent, Jan 2025), with great displacement, and there are no signs of stopping it. It has worsened EU unity, militarised the continent and revived nuclear terror.
- In the Middle East, Israel’s military operations in Gaza have intensified the conflict, making this the deadliest year since 1948. More than 36,000 Palestinians—most of them innocent civilians—have been killed (Al Jazeera, May 2025). This year, the feud escalated dramatically as Iran and Israel engaged in direct attacks for the first time in history. A red line was crossed, and the repercussions were felt across the globe.
- In South Asia, the two week-long wars between India and Pakistan consisted of airstrikes and firing shells across borders and led to the loss of lives of dozens of civilians. Unlike past skirmishes, this clash occurred at a time when Hindu nationalism was on the verge and political instability was deepening in both states—raising fears of a future escalation that could involve the use of nuclear weapons.
- The U.S. and China rivalry in the Asian Pacific is not confined to the trade. On-off oscillations with the Taiwan Strait, bans on technology, South China Sea military maneuvering and the Quad alliance enlargement indicate a gradual, brooding Cold War-like build up. A 2024 Pentagon report showed that there have been more than 220 near-miss military crashes between China and American troops in only 12 months.
Climate: The Quiet Catastrophe
Whereas geopolitics madness takes over the headlines, climate change is slowly turning into the most devastating phenomenon of the decade. Floods along the Pakistani riverbeds submerged a third of the land in the year 2022. Europe heatwaves in 2024 caused the death of more than 60,000 people, and the length of the wildfire season was unprecedented in California. The world is now on track for a 2.8-degree Celsius temperature rise, as projected by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)—a catastrophic threat to the survival of small island nations and fragile ecosystems.
Climate-induced disasters aren’t just environmental they are political. They send people fleeing, ruin economies and set up civil wars. On this, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remarked last year:
Climate breakdown has turned out to be the defining security threat of the 21st century.
Yet, the global response remains fragmented and underfunded. Developed countries have not provided the promised $100 billions in climate fund per year and the investment in fossil fuels remain higher than renewable energy in the Global South.
The Trump Factor: From Isolationist to Global Mediator?
Donald Trump built his brand on non-intervention. He pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord as president, badmouthed NATO as obsolete, took troop out of Syria and Afghanistan, and also caused the trade wars between America and China and the EU. His foreign policy was erratic, nationalist, and unilateral.
But here in 2025, he is entangling himself in all the major global hotspots. Reports indicate that he played a key role in the Iran-Israel ceasefire by engaging Gulf leaders across the board and leveraging his personal ties with Netanyahu. He has even volunteered to negotiate between India and Pakistan.
This apparent shift is not ideological — it’s strategic. In his attempt to win another presidential seat, Trump is reinventing the image of a man of peace in a war-torn world as he seeks to recapture the middle ground. But history warns us: his deals rarely last. The deal between the Taliban and the United States of 2020, the Abraham Accords and the diplomacy with Korea have not been based on long-term structures. They were headlines, not solutions.
Future Outlook: Chaos or Coexistence?
The future stability of the whole world may depend on this critical question: Can the international community actively restructure a cooperative system in time, or will power politics and populism keep pushing us toward collapse?
Three possible scenarios are emerging:
- Further fragmentation, each area succumbs to a local crisis and power has become hyper-localized.
- Police state stabilization of authoritarian personalities like Trump, Putin, and Modi who command world discourse, silence opposition, and provide short term stability by being tough that leads to the loss of democracy.
- Rethinking the world involves rebuilding international institutions like the UN, elevating climate change to a high-security priority, and empowering middle powers such as Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia to lead multilateral solutions.
Trump’s comeback complicates this equation. By re-election, his policies can only continue to undermine liberal institutions but there are also chances that he can scare up surprises in the form of brokered deals that will overrule a conflict in a temporary manner. He is not the man of peace, but something of a wild card in forestalling a wholesale breakdown.
Conclusion: From Firestarter to Firefighter?
We live in a time when wars outpace peace talks, when floods and fires are the new norms, and even those leaders who broke the system are now coming back to patch it together. The resurrection of Trump in international relations is not just about his ambitions but it signals the lack of serious and firm leadership in the world.
But the world cannot afford more showmanship. We need sustained diplomacy, climate cooperation, and institutional courage. After all, with present trends, history might not perceive the 2020s as the period of turmoil only: it might see the decade when we could not do the right thing even when all the signs told us to do so.
