THESE last few weeks blew up in an unprecedented flurry of world-changing events. A series of coups and bold escalations of war is capping a year of extreme volatility in geopolitics.South Korean martial lawSouth Korea had several dramatic shifts within a week. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, tried to suspend parliament, take over the media, and restrict and arrest opposition (defined as groups proposing neutrality or less US alignment in supporting wars in Ukraine, etc.) using heavily armed troops. Met with immediate and widespread resistance, including assemblymen climbing walls just to convene and invalidate President Yoon's declaration, the 'self-coup' failed.The defense minister was reported in the media to have attempted suicide. He had proposed this coup to the president, who is a staunch ally of the US, advocating democracy but declaring a military takeover, supporting aggressive moves against North Korea, advocating paying for cases of slavery and other violations of Japan in previous wars, which caused anger for the Korean public.President Yoon is disallowed from leaving the country and is likely to be impeached, but in a strange twist, he is allowed to remain as acting president.The US, with 15 bases in Korea, did not condemn the coup as the US normally does when led by parties not aligned with the US, and even stating ambiguously that it 'will stand by Korea in its time of uncertainty' during the coup, is seen by many as being a supporter of the coup behind the scenes, although this is denied by the State Department.Syrian collapseSyria's collapse was breathtakingly sudden, completed from the fringes to the capital of Damascus within a matter of days. After decades of war, recovering from the near takeover by rebel groups and throwing back ISIS with Russian support was always considered a possibility, but the speed and total lack of resistance by the army were unexpected.Major power dynamics will change in the Middle East as Syria was a major post and corridor of logistics and arms for the Iran group, including Lebanon and Palestine. It is an area of intense rivalry between Russia and the US. US claims of President Assad gassing his own people had been declared inaccurate by the UN and other third-party investigations. The US, however, continues to occupy large areas of Syria, the richest oil and agriculture regions, starving the Syrian government of funds.The Syrian collapse is currently seen as a big win for the US-Turkey-Israel side. Earlier invitations by Turkey's Erdogan to talk were declined by Assad, who also declined earlier offers of Russia to help, which had noted the increased activity of the insurgents.Israel is taking advantage of this and bombing various points it claims as weapons depots, also actually taking over areas of Syria, as well as invading Lebanon and other areas peripheral to their main conflict with Hamas or Hezbollah, greatly enlarging the area of their control, 'greater Israel.' This is with full financing, the latest arms, diplomatic, media, the UN and the countering of attacks supported by the US.Qatar recently withdrew from active facilitation support for the settlement of the Israel-Palestine war, noting that without sincerity of the parties or progress, there was no point and that the negotiations were just being used as a cover to extend the war and takeovers. This is in contradiction to the proposals and report of US President Biden that progress was being made, where practically all the major US proposals for peace had been accepted by the Palestinians already, but the other parties refused to come to the table or accept the terms proposed, that are considered reasonable.Electoral changesRecent domestic electoral changes in government were major geopolitical shifts that were suspected to be with the support of the United States.Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, very popular and also leading the largest single political party, who had just won an election, was sentenced to over 10 years for corruption and leaking state secrets. He was active in relations with the United States, and expanded business relations with China, but did not recognize Israel. Geopolitically, he emphasized national sovereignty and balance with different powers, but the US raised concerns when he visited Putin. The US investigations showed massive corruption in Ukraine, but apparently, there was no complaint raised when dictatorship, corruption, or illegal acts were conducted by allies.Romania's Dec 6 win by Calin Georgescu, seen as 'pro-Russian, anti-NATO,' was reversed on the basis of alleged 'foreign interference.' Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, who had refused to agree to demand a US military base, suffered a coup, replaced by the US — selected Grameen Bank's Muhammad Yunus as president, who very vocally supported Biden and criticized Trump in the last US elections. Yunus has changed his stance and now actively is making 'friendlies' with Trump.US interferenceForeign interference is apparently acceptable if the US is involved, but not for others. Another clear example is the complaint of the US against Georgia for enacting a law on 'foreign agents,' which requires disclosure. The US also complained about this being applied in Hong Kong and other countries, even though there are very extensive similar laws requiring foreign support disclosures in the US, including areas of education, investment, lobbying and nonprofits.Worldwide deep and operationalized involvement in the domestic affairs of a country, including choice of leadership by external nations, is growing, especially among Western nations. Some level of competition with other powers is positive because it allows alternatives; however, when any nation or group imposes itself and takes away normal processes, the choice is actually removed, truth and balance and objectives of harmonization will definitely suffer, and it may not be called 'rules-based' or 'pro-democracy.' The nations expecting to gain from closely aligning with any group with coercive power must study closely the net value over the medium term periods, in multiple dimensions, of these alignments.
