Will 2020s be a repeat of the last wild decade?
Fallout from the 2008-09 global financial crisis spawned a long wave of international political turbulence. Social media could add fuel to the fire over next 10 years.
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AS THE last days of the decade play out, the 2010s will be remembered as a wild period for international politics. This is largely because the fallout from the 2008-09 international financial crisis, which saw the global economic system teetering on the precipice, has been profound, and not just economically.
That financial crisis, seen by many as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, helped spawn a long wave of international political turbulence. In only the last few weeks of 2019, there have been mass protests in multiple, diverse countries from Lebanon in the Middle East to Chile and Bolivia in South America over issues from corruption to economic inequality.
In Lebanon, for instance, plans for new taxes on tobacco, petrol and WhatsApp prompted wider protest over growing living costs forcing then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri from office. Meanwhile, in Chile, a metro transport price increase has sparked unrest in one of the region's wealthiest but most unequal countries; while then-Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned in November following protests over criticisms over rising extreme poverty.
