The Most Pivotal Year in International Affairs Since the Pandemic

by Zara Hayat, International Relations Correspondent at Intelligence Forums

There’s minimal argument that when the Pandemic struck the world in the beginning of 2020 it sent unprecedented shock waves of gravity similar to the ones felt during the financial crash of ’08. If we are to trace the international forum and its timeline, trajectory would suggest that every few years the world collectively faces a blow that changes aspects of world order and decorum for the years to come. Whilst 2025 has not seen that singular fundamental reasoning for a jolt, it has rather witnessed many tumultuous points throughout the year posing it as the most pivotal year in international affairs since the Pandemic.

UN legitimacy under strain

The especially negative connotation we’ve currently been hearing about the UN, where questioning its legitimacy and value in present day seems to be a hot topic, stems back to the liquidity crisis starting in October 2023. What started off as minor delayed payments creating potential for a looming crisis to an already under funded and over worked inter-governmental organisation has morphed into a very real deep seated problem with ripple effects across the world, affecting the most vulnerable minority communities the most not just in real time but with deepening consequences for the years to come. Some of the most vital subsidiaries such as ILO, IOM, UNHCR & UNDPO have taken the biggest hits. To make matters worse, this year the United States, the UN’s largest and therefore most vital donor under the Trump administration withdrew and withheld from several multilateral funding agreements. In February of this year White House issued an executive action titled “Withdrawing the United States From and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and reviewing United States support to all international organizations.” This title alone highlights the diminishing value the superpower puts towards the UN with many other countries following suit. To combat these cuts and move on with a still effective new normal, the UN80, a reform initiative was launched earlier this year. A year on from the Pact for the Future, it was created on the principle that “Trust is Key” hoping to create new forms and processes to win back the trust of the masses whilst still keeping its missions sustainable and successful but as luck would have it, the contentious reforms led to increased layoffs and therefore mounting tensions within the UN itself causing Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Under Secretary General Guy Ryder to face a vote of no confidence. This internal turmoil placed the organisation’s leadership and reform agenda under unprecedented scrutiny, further echoing the global sentiment of eroding confidence in its ability to govern itself effectively. Even the International Court of Justice, previously viewed as the foundation of unbiased international arbitration, has also faced scrutiny regarding its validity. Its political selectivity in cases and its failure to compel compliance has exposed deep-rooted flaws in what was supposed to be the most reliable branch of the UN's accountability system, casting doubt on the idea of international justice itself. In many ways, this crisis of trust and functionality encapsulates why this year stands as the most pivotal year for international affairs since the pandemic as it is one defined by the struggle to preserve the legitimacy of the world’s biggest and most comprehensive IGO in an increasingly fractured world.

International politics and legitimacy in question due to ongoing genocide

Whilst the annihilation of Palestinians is one that has recently gained momentum its roots can be traced back to the Nakba in 1948. That being said, it is only this year that the UN’s investigate reports officially declare it a genocide, notably the first of its kind as well as it is the only genocide to have ever been broadcast due to the ascent of social media. We are living in a world where for the first time ever a concrete genocide is being filmed and live streamed to our phones and yet it is political strategy and anarchic temperaments that take precedence as evident by the West’s failing responses this year. Building on the aforementioned, this year’s UNGA was namely characterised by some Western states such as France, UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Malta recognising Palestinian statehood, a move borne out of both frustration towards Israel’s consistent immorality as well as the eroded ability of governments to claim ignorance or neutrality. This political calculus can be seen as a way to signal responsiveness to global outrage proving the bottom up approach of the masses to be partially successful and reassert commitment to international law without directly confronting Israel or jeopardizing key alliances, particularly with the United States. The calculated act of reputational management underscores the modern day complexities in the rehumanisation of the oppressed, often echoing the White Revolution in Iran. Building on the aforementioned point of the complexities of rehumanisation, its important to highlight that whilst a similar turmoil has been continuing to unfold in South Sudan, it has not been gaining nearly the same amount of international heed. Additionally the ICC seems to be working on the same principle of symbolism rather than operational due to its hesitancy to act decisively on alleged war crimes and criminals in Gaza. Its perceived double standards where it has previously been rapid to indict in Africa yet paralysed in the face of western allies has further fuelled accusations that international law itself is crumbling under the weight of geopolitics. The continuation of the genocide as well as the strategic decisions from the powerful states this year highlights the fractures in global power dispersion even more evidently.

AI’s rapid growth & the consequent reemergence of the Cold War

AI’s popularity has been booming since ChatGPT’s introduction at the end of 2022 but this year has had some pivotal moments in that sector. The biggest regulatory shift can be attributed to EU’s AI Act applying some of its cross sector bans and baseline transparency obligations from February with additional compliance timelines for codes of practice and for high-risk systems spread over the following months. Following that, by mid 2025 the European Commission published guidance clarifying on how the AI Act applies to general-purpose models and issued guidance on misuse by employers, websites and policing. Those interpretive steps turned the Act from a high-level statute into operational rules firms must follow creating the first every large scale enforceable cross-border legal standard for AI risk categories with its implications applying not only to various countries but to multinational firms such as Google, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, Apple and Meta. The latter chose to opt out of the agreement and are currently facing major pushback and regulatory pressure from the EU. This coerced compliance meant firms had to change products, legal compliance plans and frameworks or risk exclusions, fine and be left behind in the rat race. Google’s public alignment with EU rules especially whilst simultaneously engaging US policy and global outreach, helped make 2025 a turning point as corporate practices now shift in response to hard rules and fast policy work from Big Tech itself. In line with the topics aforementioned, the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) carried out intensified defence AI deployments and sales such as of their BlueWhale UUVs, cross-border deals with the US such as the America - Israel AI Cooperation Act alongside the increased use of Palantir’s technology to target civilians and drafted their own sectoral policy and privacy guidelines. The most recent development has shifted focus between China and the USA from their AI cold war into a geopolitical visa war. In September when Trump created the $100,000 HB-1 visa fee, causing a massive blow to all United States companies, in response China immediately rolled out their own more lenient K visa to attract international talent and operational bases especially in the tech sector to migrate and set up bases in their country. This tug of war for soft power and talent creates bipolar tensions causing ripple effects felt most by collateral countries. All these developments signal the global competition shifting from traditional power to digital and human capital domains.

Climate Change progress stagnation and Paris Agreement decorative

The rapidly changing climate is an issue that fundamentally cannot exist in a vacuum and this year has proved that more than ever. The momentum to preserve the ecosystem and reverse the detrimental effects was solidified at the Paris Agreement almost a decade ago but has since died down as States turn their attention (and finances) elsewhere and this year has seen the critical effects of that action. Temperatures around the world have reached record high which means that countries, namely developing ones such as Pakistan that were already struggling to grapple with the domino effects that it brings face exacerbated problems and those such as the UK who just had their hottest summer on record were left trying to understand a new normal. This year also saw an unprecedented number of natural causes such as tsunamis, forest fires and volcanic eruptions scattered all around the world. Studies suggest that there were 63 confirmed eruptions at some point during 2025 from 58 different volcanoes; 21 of those were new eruptions that started during the year. Furthermore this year saw a new record low of sea ice and the consequences of that present itself in the form of reduced fish in the sea disrupting the marine hierarchy and leading to a growing number of endangered species. Fossil fuel phase out acts were also noted to be slower than expected whereas a rise in greenwashing deception as seen by the Total Energies case in France proved monumental in highlighting this. Increased purchases of carbon credits and efforts towards carbon offsets were also exposed as pseudo as they fail to cut global heating due to intractable systemic problems. To top it all off artificial intelligence of all forms is rapidly growing both in the corporate world and in its personal use and whilst we do not have enough studies confirming just how detrimental it is and in what ways to the environments, even the reports we do have are substantial enough to deem it deeply concerning from an environmental perspective. Many argue that not only are these valid reasons for the increased discourse on inequity, but all these are telling signs that the Paris agreement on its nine year anniversary has taken a decorative stance as its policies seem to work better in theory than actuality as such issues will only be growing with time. All this being said, we must take into account the fact that there have been several advancements in the field of science that have been benign towards the environment. To name two interesting ones, a new form of plastic just as durable as the kind we know has been created out of salt bonds which means it degrades leaving no microplastics in just a matter of seconds. Secondly, horseshoe crab blood has been used in medicine for decades to test for dangerous bacterial contaminants called endotoxins in vaccines but procuring it is known to be extremely harmful for the crabs but this year scientists have managed to create a synthetic version of it which will change the course of vaccine testing and horseshoe crab health for times to come. COP30 is yet to be held in mid November as the culmination point of this year and so the tactical and long-term outcomes of that conference is still to be seen, not to mention that to some degree the already precarious reputation of the UN relies on it.

Healthcare and post pandemic disillusionment

In 2025, the conversation surrounding global health has shifted from pandemic recovery to an uneasy reckoning with what that recovery revealed which is the fragility of international cooperation in the face of shared crises. The World Health Organization (WHO), still reeling from funding freezes, U.S. withdrawals, and delayed contributions has struggled to reassert authority and preform productively with the growing and ever-changing healthcare concerns. The cracks exposed during COVID-19 from vaccine inequity, access to the politicisation of public-health data and currently the vast potential threat of the weaponisation of ai in the healthcare sector have only widened. Attempts this year to finalise the Pandemic Accord, first introduced in 2021 as a blueprint for future crisis prevention has been repeatedly stalled amid disagreements over intellectual-property rights, vaccine sharing, and the sovereignty of health data amid growing cybersecurity and data breach risks. Simultaneously this year the Global South’s frustration with the WHO and major donors has reached its peak. Countries in Africa and South Asia, many of which continue to face secondary public-health crises from underfunded immunisation and nutrition programmes, have accused global institutions of health diplomacy without delivery, unequal initiatives heavy on pledges and conferences but light on results. In this vacuum, regional blocs such as the African Union and ASEAN have begun establishing their own parallel disease-control frameworks, signalling a quiet decentralisation of health governance. This year the BRICS healthcare initiatives focus on areas like AI, data governance, and physical/technological infrastructure, with specific events like the BRICS CCI Healthcare Summit held in New Delhi, India proving the evident shift from reliance on WHO to autonomous and more regionalised entities, further exposing the fractures in the universal healthcare system. These fractures mirror the larger erosion of multilateral trust already seen across other avenues. Health, once viewed as a neutral domain of cooperation, has become another theatre for geopolitical rivalry particularly as the U.S. and China still compete for vaccine distribution influence in Latin America and Africa. The moral authority once associated with collective humanitarian action has been replaced by transactional diplomacy, where aid is increasingly tethered to political alignment. In this sense, the disillusionment surrounding global healthcare in 2025 is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a broader story. Not to disregard all the incredible advancements made in the healthcare sector this year but just to say that as the UN struggles to maintain cohesion and the ICJ and ICC wrestle with relevance, the WHO’s faltering credibility underscores why 2025 stands as the most pivotal year since the pandemic: a moment when the world is forced to confront whether multilateralism can still deliver in an age defined by fragmentation, fatigue, and fading trust.

Race to Space Diplomacy

The concept of space diplomacy is not one that is heard often, yet it’s a very vast and very pertinent area where significant strides were made this year. The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) was set up by the General Assembly in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space to foster multilateral cooperation for mutual benefit in the realm of space exploration. Its extremely important to have a (at face value) impartial moderator in this sector so that nations such as The US, China, and private actors don’t attempt to leverage their power to reframe the space race into a tool of diplomacy and influence projection to mark a futuristic shift in soft power competition. COPUOS had its 66th session this year where it emphasised that outer space remains a domain of high risk from military and dual use threats and must remain peaceful and accessible, hinting at the fact that the weaponisation of space already poses as a threat as evident by satellites being hijacked or interfered with. The Golden Dome missile-defence concept was announced by the United States in May 2025 that it would deploy weapons/interceptors in orbit and reports indicate that nations, namely Russia and China are developing anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities and co-orbital systems and even nuclear-armed space weapon concepts, gravely intensifying the rate at which outer space is being used for ulterior gains. Due to these reasons COPUOS established an Expert Group on Space Situational Awareness this year to address increased challenges of space-traffic, debris, dual-use threats, and transparency. The  Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) was also created and had its first sessions this year. Furthermore the conversation was shifted to how more actors including states, non state and commercial were needed to be included in the conversation. The peaceful uses paradigm is expanding into ideas of safe, secure, sustainable, collaborative uses; the Moon and other celestial bodies are gaining prominence in diplomacy not just those in Earths orbit and governance mechanisms are being crafted not only in treaty form but via UN committees, expert groups, action teams (like ATLAC), multilateral conferences, capacity-building partnerships. All these points further reiterate the notion that 2025 has been a pivotal year even in conversations and action regarding outer space.

Trump’s roller coaster year in global mediations vs. domestic decline

Whilst the United States has been consistently mentioned throughout this article, its ongoing imbalance between pragmatic realpolitik internationally and self-serving nationalism at home remains an avenue of much insight. Trump administration’s second term this year was marked by the dismantling of USAID, the worlds largest de jure agency for foreign aid and development aiding millions of lives in various avenues every year. This refers not only to direct financial cash flow but also the shutdown of FEWS NET, IPC and DOGE to name a few. A study published in The Lancet on June 30, 2025, estimated that funding cuts and the abolition of the agency could result in at least 14 million preventable deaths by 2030, 4.5 million of which could be among children under 5 years old. As part of the perpetual cold war China had created their own version of USAID called the Belt and Road initiative or the New Silk Road and announced that it would pump even more money into it after the dismantling of USAID, indirectly increasing their foreign influence and leverage this way. Furthermore the freezing of contributions to WHO, UNESCO, and FAO, and the refusal to settle this year’s UN membership dues have collectively symbolised a profound retreat from multilateral cooperation. The administration presents these withdrawals as demonstrations of sovereignty and efficiency, aiming to regain control from what it characterises as excessive and ineffective global bureaucracies yet in practice, these measures have undermined the systems that support American influence, resulting in a vacuum that is easily occupied by China and other emerging powers. Paradoxically all this has unfolded as Trump tries to shift his image as an international mediator and peacemaker, mediating in several ongoing conflicts and publicly expressing his disappointment and surprise towards his snubbing for the Nobel Peace Prize. Through the lens of realpolitik, these efforts reflect an increasingly transactional foreign policy: diplomacy pursued not through shared values or collective ideals but through the optics of victory and personal legacy. This dichotomy of withdrawal from institutions on one hand and performative mediation on the other has come to define the United States’ global posture in 2025. In yet another pivotal twist, the US passport has fallen out of the world’s top ten strongest passports for the first time in history this year to 12th position marking it as a strong indicator to how the country’s efforts are being unequally divided between addressing external assertiveness and internal fragility. Additionally in October of 2025 Trump announced $300 million going towards the creation of a ballroom in the east wing of the White House which many locals argue could go towards addressing healthcare, homelessness, education etc in the nation. Economic inequality, polarisation, and social unrest continue to undermine the moral authority that once underpinned its soft power. The problem lies not only in the mindsets of the people creating these policies themselves but in the weak and persistent attempt to compartmentalise national self-interest from global responsibility, failing to recognise that in today’s world, the two are inseparable. In this sense, the American paradox epitomises 2025’s defining tension a year in which the pursuit of power without partnership has revealed the limits of unilateralism and the high cost of forsaking collective legitimacy.

This article was written in October of 2025 and therefore does not take into account anything that happened after this time. It has tried to be as objective and impartial as possible yet it is possible that opinions and sentiments may have seeped in. Additionally whilst it is not all encompassing of all the pivotal moments this year it has tried to highlight some of the biggest ones.