So,
1) WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE GLOBAL STAGE?
My knowledge of the developments taking place at the global stage is limited but I'll try to best to share whatever I am aware of, in a structured manner:
a) ECONOMICALLY - Petrodollar, Federal Reserve, Gold, China and Russia
At the end of the day, it's almost always about wealth, so as they say, follow the money.
The US economy is burdened with trillions of dollars of debt which is owed to the Feds (Federal Reserve). Since quite sometime now, the US economy had passed the point where it was possible to payback what it owed to the Feds. The only thing keeping things afloat is the demand that exists globally for the dollar (the petrodollar). Till now, anything or anyone which has come in the way of effecting this artificially created demand has met a tragic end. However, if one studies what China and Russia have been doing since the last decade, s/he will observe that not only have they been diversifying their forex reserves by divesting in the dollar and moving towards precious metals, especially gold, but they have gradually formed alliances in which trading w/could be possible based on other currencies and/or even gold. The acceptance of Yuan as a world reserve currency last years by IMF was another major step in the direction of further weakening the dollar's future. China, at the moment holds, a significant amount of US debt and also has the ability to bring the dollar down crashing globally, if it so wills. However, China has been smart and knows very well that any such abrupt move could jeopardise everything including it's own economic goals. Hence, it has been gradually building up it's gold reserves and diversifying. Similar is the case with Russia.
Furthermore, several major countries have begun asking US Federal Reserve - the custodian of a major chunk of global gold bullion, for return of their gold. Central banks of foreign countries since 2012, have been withdrawing their gold reserves from the US Federal Reserve.A massive repatriation of gold began back in the beginning of 2014. During 2015 period, a total of 250 tons of physical gold have been withdrawn from the Federal Reserve. The gold reserves in the depository dropped to 5,950 tons, a record low for the last 20 years. Last time, a similar situation occurred ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, and foreign central banks withdrew nearly 400 tons of gold. Taking into account that the current withdrawal has lasted since 2014 and 2015 saw a new crisis, history is repeating itself, The first major attempts by foreign countries to return their gold reserves first began in 2012. At the time, Germany made attempts to withdraw its gold, but was denied examination and received only a small portion of the planned 700 tons.
Turkey is another country, economy of which should be studied and how it was able to payback it's WB/IMF loans and now in a very strong economic/financial position.
Alliances such as BRICS and SCO among others, all point towards shifting of centre of financial power, from the west, towards the east - Eurasia.
After studying the recent developments on the economic/financial policies front in several of the above-mentioned eurasian countries, one can sense that they are preparing for the collapse of US dollar and preparing fast for the advent of a new financial world order. Once the global confidence in Dollar shakes, there'll be a domino effect and currencies of all of Americas and Europe, will take a devastating hit.
b) MILITARILY
Around a decade ago, the US along with it's NATO allies, enjoyed an unmatched position in terms of military might in the whole world. However, looking at the recent moves that many of the upcoming, developing and some developed countries have taken, strategically, it seems that we are looking at an alignment of strategic interests taking place in the east among countries which include, but are not limited to, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia. Together this group represents three of the eight/nine countries in the world which possess nuclear weapons. The first three in the group, vis-a-vis, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, have all either well developed strategic alliance with China and/or Russia OR are taking visible steps towards that direction.
I would now like to invite other members, including @Sinopakfriend to further elaborate or add to the above or even critically analyse what I've written above.
