Briefing | The post-post-cold-war world

The war in Ukraine is going to change geopolitics profoundly

Some bits will look familiar, some will look unprecedented

Not everything has changed
|WASHINGTON, DC

“THIS MORNING we are defending our country alone,” declared Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, on Friday February 25th, the day after Russia’s invasion began. It was “the beginning of the war against Europe”. Yet Europe’s only forces in the field were those of Ukraine.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “The post-post-cold-war world”

The horror ahead

From the March 5th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Briefing

 Asylum-seeking migrants walk along the US-Mexico border fence near the Jacumba Hot Spring, California

How far will Donald Trump go to get rid of illegal immigrants?

It is his signature policy, but the obstacles are daunting

A photo collage about plastic surgery boon, featuring public figures like Joe Jonas and Kim Kardashian

Young customers in developing countries propel a boom in plastic surgery

Falling costs and converging beauty standards spur new habits


The torn down statue of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad.

The Assad regime’s fall voids many of the Middle East’s old certainties

What if Syria abandoned its hostility to the West and stopped menacing Israel?


Syria has exchanged a vile dictator for an uncertain future

It is not clear how stable or how benign the new regime will be

Gambling is growing like gangbusters in America

Technology and legal changes are spurring a betting bonanza

The Adani bribery case could upend Indian business and politics

The allegations against the corporate champion may end up being resolved diplomatically rather than in court