But amid this welter of stories, perhaps the biggest of the year was that all the headlines the region generated were not because of its growing importance, but quite thee contrary. They were the death rattles of a region that was largely growing less rlevant to the world by the day. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that while the Middle East burned, global stock markets boomed, oil prices fell, and other regions, once thought of as dependent on Middle Eastern resources, found new suppliers. Investors hedged and bet elsewhere. If the people of this region were not going to solve their problems constructively, the planet’s markets seemed to be saying, We will work around them. We will disconnect. We will let these fights burn themselves out.
The rise of two of the great powers with dependence on Middle Eastern resources — China and India, the Middle East’s two great markets of tomorrow — was not smooth during the past year. But even with slowing growth and corruption scandals, China continued its relentless march forward to being one of the two great powers of the 21st century. The United States and China even showed some signs of better cooperation during a visit by Obama and with a series of agreements including a
constructive step forward on climate. That deal put India and other emerging powers in a difficult position regarding their own climate stances, but India showed again that it had a strength China can only aspire to. It is a democracy, the world’s largest, and somehow it has embraced both the messiness and the virtues of democracy in a way that has kept it moving forward. Its neighbors in Pakistan, a country more divided and dangerous than ever, remain a threat. But India’s rise has been recognized by the other great powers of the world, progress toward enhancing its status that has come through growth on a variety of fronts (including an innovative bargain-basement
space exploration program) that will fittingly be noted in an early-2015 summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama.
A climate deal in Lima, Peru, was another important story of the year … as was the planet’s continuing inability to act more effectively to reverse the real and deepening climate crisis we face. There were also a host of other minor stories that captured our attention, from America’s opening to Cuba (which was more important for how it changed the tenor of U.S. relations with the rest of the hemisphere than for anything having to do with the tiny, no longer terribly relevant Caribbean nation), to Brazil’s looming Petrobras scandal and Mexico’s deadly, devastating drug wars.
