ON June 19, 2022, long lines brought 39 million Colombian (out of a population of 51 million) to vote in their presidential election. In rural areas, where the vote is often suppressed due to desolation or violence, the lines seemed longest. People took great risks – against threats from paramilitary groups and narco-mafias – to stand in these queues and choose between two very different political projects: an old project that favoured the old hierarchies that have ruled Colombia since the 19th century, and a new project that favours the development of democracy and social equality.

ON June 19, 2022, the people of Colombia will vote in a second round to elect their president and vice president. In the first round on May 29, the candidates of the Left – Gustavo Petro (president) and Francia Márquez (vice president) of the Pacto Histórico (Historical Pact) – led the way. Coming second was Rodolfo Hernández, a millionaire former mayor of Bucaramanga, and his running mate Marelen Castillo, both of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors.

IN the first two weeks of May 2022, the Malian military government ejected the French military and withdrew from the French political project, G5 Sahel. Deep resentment spread across Mali because of the civilian casualties from French military attacks and because of the French government’s arrogant attitude towards the Malian government. Colonel Assimi Goïta, who leads the military junta, said that the agreement with the French ‘brought neither peace, nor security, nor reconciliation’ and that the population aspires ‘to stop the flow of Malian blood’.

DAYS before the Ukrainian war commenced, the US announced its new Indo-Pacific Strategy (February 2022). This document is not only about China, but is also about India. Viewed along with the recently concluded US-India 2+2 ministerial talks (11 April), it becomes clear that the Indo-Pacific strategy of the US and its various defence deals with India binds both the countries inseparably together.The latest US Indo-Pacific strategy recognises the present international reality, where the US, in spite of its desire, can no more boast of its earlier strength.

THE war in Ukraine is not a simple war. This is not a war merely between two neighbours about a border dispute, for instance. It is a complex war, a war not only between Russia and Ukraine but also a war that involves the United States and NATO (the Trojan Horse of the United States). The battlefield is Ukraine, but it is not only Ukraine.