By James E. Jennings*
ATLANTA, USA | 4 February 2026 (IDN) — While UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent speech brilliantly described the world as it is in 2026—growing in population, war, starvation, and conflict, there are no solutions as yet that anybody can see. No easy fix exists for the widespread unrest that may eventually metastasize into a global conflict, but understanding the causes is obligatory.
Most people seem content to leave the task of untangling today’s Gordian Knot of world affairs to the experts—except that in this case the “experts” are rapacious billionaires, stone-hearted heads of state, dealers in drugs, patrons of bloodthirsty militias, cowardly congressmen and women, paedophiles, and those who defend them.
Leading this unsavoury pack is the US President, a near-octogenarian who most US citizens credit with the mentality of a juvenile with a gargantuan ego, leading him to bomb and invade other countries while boasting about what a great peacemaker he is.
Meanwhile, because the Republican Party in power in Washington continues to support an aggressive and unstable foreign policy, the leaders of Canada and the United Kingdom have made pilgrimages to China to hedge their bets amid the ongoing tariff war, which promises even more disruptive events ahead.
The European Union has just concluded an epochal trade deal with India, making the joint economic condominium one of the largest in history.
Yet the overwhelming problems our globe faces are not primarily the result of people like Trump using their extraordinary powers to mess things up. They are merely riding the flood of long-developing trends that have put some people up and others down.
The leading causes
Most true experts believe that changes in global climate are among the leading causes of the financial pinch people everywhere find themselves in. The Coronavirus pandemic was another warning that unanticipated threats can wreak havoc on defenceless populations. The deadly Nipah virus recently appeared in Vietnam, while Chikungunya has spread further in SE Asia.
The modern world’s political organisation based on nationhood is breaking down due to population diversity and transhumance (migration). Solutions based on universal class warfare or on reforming the monetary system, particularly following the century-long conflict for which Marxism seemed to many the answer, no longer attract the masses. Today, there is growing concern that plastic, electronic, and virtual money systems will only exacerbate the plight of those left out of these transactions.
These and other factors are increasingly channelled and affected by careless human activities, whether through overconsumption, pollution, or inequitable sharing. Escaping these evils, which inevitably lead to human exploitation and war, will require visionary leadership.
What will help is a determination by all of us to support fairness, the sharing of resources, peaceful dialogue among nations, and the recognition of the equal worth of every human life. Not learning those lessons means that many people alive today will inevitably suffer war, exile, impoverishment, and disease, leading to shortened lives. [IDN-InDepthNews]
*James E. Jennings is President of Conscience International www.Conscienceinternational.org