2025: A Year of Unprecedented Global Turmoil and Conflict

Mon Dec 29 2025 07:44:36 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Renowned journalist John Simpson reflects on the tumultuous events of 2025, highlighting major conflicts and the potential for escalation into a world war, with insights into geopolitical implications and the roles of global powers.

In a year marked by multiple major conflicts, John Simpson, BBC's world affairs editor, expresses deep concern about the geopolitical ramifications of ongoing wars. From the devastation in Ukraine to the escalating conflict in Gaza, Simpson emphasizes the unprecedented nature of warfare in 2025, with implications that could reshape international relations and influence future global events, particularly as the West grapples with evolving conflicts and their impacts.

Sensitive content: This article contains a graphic description of death that some readers may find upsetting

I've reported on more than 40 wars around the world during my career, which goes back to the 1960s. I watched the Cold War reach its height, then simply evaporate. But I've never seen a year quite as worrying as 2025 has been - not just because several major conflicts are raging but because it is becoming clear that one of them has geopolitical implications of unparalleled importance.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the current conflict in his country could escalate into a world war. After nearly 60 years of observing conflict, I've got a nasty feeling he's right.

Nato governments are on high alert for any signs that Russia is cutting the undersea cables that carry the electronic traffic that keeps Western society going. Their drones are accused of testing the defences of Nato countries. Their hackers develop ways of putting ministries, emergency services, and huge corporations out of operation.

The year 2025 has been marked by three very different wars. There is Ukraine of course, where the UN says 14,000 civilians have died. In Gaza, where Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu promised mighty vengeance after about 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 and 251 people were taken hostage. Since then, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action, including more than 30,000 women and children according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry – figures the UN considers reliable.

Meanwhile there has been a ferocious civil war between two military factions in Sudan. More than 150,000 people have been killed there over the past couple of years; around 12 million have been forced out of their homes.

Some conflicts, such as Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and the war in Kosovo, did occasionally look as though they might tip over into something much worse, but they never did. The great powers were too nervous about the dangers that a localized, conventional war might turn into a nuclear one.

In the coming year, 2026, though, Russia, noting President Trump's apparent lack of interest in Europe, seems ready and willing to push for much greater dominance. Earlier this month, Putin said Russia was not planning to go to war with Europe, but was ready right now if Europeans wanted to.

For Ukraine and its European supporters, already feeling that they are at war with Russia, that's an important question. Europe will have to take over a far greater share of keeping Ukraine going, but if the United States turns its back on Ukraine, as it sometimes threatens to do, that will be a colossal burden.

If you thought World War Three would be a shooting-match with nuclear weapons, think again. It's much more likely to be a collection of diplomatic and military manoeuvres, which will see autocracy flourish. It could even threaten to break up the Western alliance.