Strategic Survey 2022 charts a geopolitical fault line marked by two decisions. The first was the West’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. This ended a 20-year military intervention that was the first act of the now-forgotten ‘war on terror’. The second was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine six months later. This began the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
These twin events will shape world politics for years. They have already thrown up surprises. Few expected that the Afghan government forces would collapse so completely, or that Ukrainians would stay and fight so hard and so well. Few expected, after the calamitous evacuation from Kabul, that a new war would restore Western unity and purpose, or lay bare Russia’s weaknesses across every domain of power, so quickly.
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Strategic Survey 2022, the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ flagship review of geopolitics, analyses these themes and many more of rising significance on every continent. It examines the deeper forces that drive them, and how these will shape the geopolitics of the coming year and beyond.
Dr John Chipman is the Director-General and Chief Executive of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He has served on a variety of corporate international advisory boards and company Boards of Directors, and consults widely for businesses with international interests. His Harvard Business Review article of September 2016 on ‘Why Your Company needs a Foreign Policy’ has been influential in guiding corporate policy. He speaks regularly to business audiences on political risk, regional security and global trends.
Emile Hokayem is the Senior Fellow for Middle East Security at the IISS. He specialises in political and conflict analysis, including the wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen; relations between Iran and its Arab neighbours; the rise of non-state actors, including jihadi groups and Hizbullah; national security and defence policy in the Arab states; and the interests and involvement of external actors in the Middle East.
Nigel Inkster is Senior Adviser for Cyber Security and China at the IISS. His research portfolio has included transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organised crime, cyber security, intelligence and security, and the evolving character of conflict. Prior to joining the IISS, Nigel worked for 31 years in the British Secret Intelligence Service, retiring at the end of 2006 as assistant chief and director of operations and intelligence.
Dr Nigel Gould-Davies edits Strategic Survey: The Annual Assessment of Geopolitics. He is also the Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia, conducting research on the politics, economics and security of the former Soviet Union. From 2010–14 Nigel held senior government relations roles in the energy industry in central and southeast Asia. Between 2000 and 2010 he served in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where his roles included head of the economics department in Moscow, Ambassador to Belarus and project director in the Strategy Unit.