Russia's invasion of Ukraine claimed the lives of hundreds of people on the battlefield and in bombed Ukrainian cities. But internationally, it also affects everything from food security in Cairo to gasoline prices in California. It has highlighted major geopolitical changes and changed the way some of the world's most important institutions operate.
Here's how the world has changed in 10 days since the war returned to Europe.
A changing world order
The invasion of Ukraine did not usher in a new era of great power politics. It was the violent exclamation mark confirming one of the most significant changes in the global geopolitical order since September 11.
In the years that followed, global terrorism absorbed much of the attention of Western leaders. Al-Qaeda and ISIS were the enemies to be countered. The Kremlin was no longer seen as the same threat as it once was – so much so that in 2012, President Barack Obama mocked then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney as out of touch for calling Russia the number one geopolitical enemy of the United States. .
By that time, Putin had already shown that he wanted to overthrow the post-Cold War order.
The former KGB intelligence officer took office in 2000 promising to restore Russia's former glory, sometimes through military force. As prime minister in 1999, he launched an offensive in the Russian Republic of Chechnya against separatist guerrillas. In 2008, the Kremlin invaded Georgia and recognized two secessionist republics in the country, which at the time was approaching Europe.
Later, Putin's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – apparently as an ally in the war on terror – did not win him any favor in Western democracies, not least because of credible reports of the Syrian dictator's decision to attack his own people with chemical weapons. Putin's decision to annex Crimea in 2014 and support separatists in eastern Ukraine resulted in sanctions and was strongly condemned. The same was true of Russia's alleged attempts to assassinate its enemies on foreign soil.
But Putin remained an important, if unsavory, actor and partner for Washington's leaders in Warsaw during the 2010s. Russia has been an important factor in the fight against ISIS; Europe's leading energy supplier; and helped negotiate major diplomatic pacts like the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Last week's invasion may have put an end to that. After a quarter of a century of relations between the Western world and Putin, he may have finally pushed the boundaries and become a pariah.
In response, the Western world hit Russia with unprecedented sanctions that crippled its financial institutions, sent its economy and the ruble into free fall, and even personally targeted Putin and some of his relatives.
"Putin is now more isolated from the world than he has ever been,"
U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday in his State of the Union address.
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