The Global Map, 2017

world-on-fire-creative-commonsBarack Obama pledged to radically transform America when he took office. He didn’t stop at America. President Obama’s greatest legacy may be the radical reshaping of the global map.

Fast forward three years. Here’s where we stand.

Given Europe’s failure to stand up to Russian aggression in Crimea, Russia’s borders have expanded to include Eastern Ukraine, northern Kazakhstan and larger portions of Moldova. As of 2014, Russia had consolidated its hold on Transnistria, the Eastern region of Moldova, which is heavily Russian; Russia had annexed Crimea; Russia had placed troops inside Eastern Ukraine.

But it didn’t stop there. Russia began squeezing Georgia again, and pro-Russian regimes are consolidating their power in Kazakhstan and Belarus. Belarus asked the Russian government to place 15 warplanes inside the country in 2014; Kazakhstan got into a tiff with Russia over comments Putin made unsubtly suggesting a possible invasion of the country, then complied with Putin’s demands when the West did nothing.

Thus far, Putin has not invaded any NATO countries. But that could change, given the high Russian population in Latvia and Estonia.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Jordan’s kingdom has fallen, replaced by a radical Islamist regime. That Palestinian Arab regime has attempted to consolidate its power by forming an alliance with Hamas in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. In Lebanon, the Iranians and Syrians have effectively annexed southern Lebanon. Israel’s only quiet border is now its southern border with Egypt.

In Syria, Bashar Assad has retained a measure of power by essentially conceding territory to ISIS in the eastern part of the country; after a halfhearted intervention against ISIS, the international community went quiet as ISIS formed its sought-after caliphate in eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

In response, Iran essentially invaded southern Iraq, and Turkey launched covert action against the Kurds in order to prevent the formation of a broader Kurdistan encompassing parts of Turkish territory.

With the withdrawal of the United States and its allies from Afghanistan, Pakistan has once again made its presence felt. The Taliban have effectively taken control of large swaths of territory, with the help of the Pakistani regime, which has shifted leadership but not position with regard to radical Islam.

In the most stunning international move, China has threatened full-scale annexation of Taiwan, barring access to the South China Sea from Western countries and cutting off Taiwan’s trade routes. The West has refused to leverage China, fearing financial retaliation. China has made similar moves against the Philippines.

Come 2017, this will be President Obama’s legacy: a world of redrawn borders, all to the benefit of some of the worst regimes on the planet. When America retreats from the world, its enemies expand.

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  • Dan Knight

    Yes.

  • UCSPanther

    Over 100 years ago, people were claiming that the world was becoming “more civilized”, but on July 28, 1914, WWI broke out with all its savage glory and horror.

    The more things change, the more they remain the same.

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  • herb benty

    THAT is Obama’s legacy, he paved the way for totalitarianism to prevail in this world, he put knowledge of God secondary to human self-realization. Like all dyed-in-the-wool leftists he believes in their “Utopia”, and they believe they can make it happen, if they just have enough of everyone else’s money. But they dismiss the fact of human wickedness, corruption, evil, greed, pride, hubris, in short, SIN. We are being led by godless men and women in a world created by the God. Pray it isn’t long.

    • objectivefactsmatter

      According to him we’re the totalitarians.

  • marlene

    the more things “change”, the worse they get. we do not learn from history. And when obama’s regine is over, he will say : mission accomplished.

    • mdemetrius

      Sadly, those of us who do study history are doomed to watch those who do not, repeat it.

  • Whois_Galt

    This Article’s author definately makes the case that “WE ARE LIVING THROUGH MOMENTUSLY INTERESTING TIMES”. I just hope that we succeed living through them!

  • Hard Little Machine

    There will be Islamic Autonomous Regions in at least one EU country by then and the 40 millionth illegal Alien will be given amnesty by Obama.

  • Walt L

    “America retreats from the world, its enemies expand”.

    Great article, the ending line I used as the quotation states it all of the chaos happening around the world..

  • ricpic

    What Mr. Shapiro left out of his predictions is the near certainty of another 9/11 here in the United States before 2017. Will Americans finally revolt when Obama’s reaction to that event will be to call for restraint toward the practitioners of the Religion of Peace? Or are Americans so soft, so mired in comfort that nothing will rouse them to throw off the Manchurian tyrant?

    • Softly Bob

      They’ll revolt but not all of them.
      There’ll still be the usual unwashed herd of Liberal dunces whinging about the Tea-Party and blaming racism or Western imperialism for the terrorist attack, conspiracy theorists blaming Israel for it, and a troupe of do-gooder clowns claiming that violence is not the answer and that we should reach out to Muslims and allow them to build more mosques.
      You see, no matter how great a nation is, when it reaches the flashpoint percentage of idiots in its population it has to fight two wars at once, a war against the aggressor and a war against the fools within.
      This problem is not unique to America but as evident in Europe, is a problem in Britain and France too. Only Russia I fear, and I hate to say this, seems to be switched on enough to deal with its own idiots and prevent them from taking over.

  • Moa

    Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Jordan’s kingdom has fallen, replaced by a radical Islamist regime.

    This would be very bad.

  • Kruton

    Well you can’t be counted on,that,s for sure!