Flashpoints to watch in 2019
It looks like the coming year will be an even rougher ride.
THE world is changing fast and 2019 promises to be another bewildering and chaotic year.
Whether this upheaval is due to a technological revolution, income inequality, a clash of civilisations or Western arrogance (choose your poison), the trend is set to continue. In 2019, a number of these transitions from the post-Cold War era have the potential to come to a head, each carrying “worst case” risks. To help navigate them, Bloomberg has compiled a calendar of some of the key moments to watch:
A new arms race
On Dec 4, Donald Trump gave Russia 60 days to comply with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty or see Washington trigger a six-month notice period to end its commitments not to produce landbased missiles and launchers that have a range of 500km to 5,500km. The clock runs out at the end of February. The 1987 treaty was negotiated between the US and then-Soviet Union to dismantle thousands of middle-range nuclear missiles in Europe. Shorter trajectories made them hard to respond to and therefore destabilising. That remains true today, but non-signatory China wasn’t covered and now has a large arsenal of them. Russia says it hasn’t breached the treaty’s terms.
> Worst case: The US exits and Russia points previously banned missiles at its Western neighbours, supercharging an arms race in high-tech weapons already underway, and tossing a political grenade into Nato, as the US and eastern and western European members divide over whether to respond in kind.
> Risk of INF treaty collapse: High
> Risk of new nuclear arms race in Europe: Medium
Russia
The Kremlin may have given up on cultivating Trump, after he canceled two meetings with President Vladimir Putin toward the end of the year. Russia’s meddling in foreign elections, and its efforts to extend influence in the Balkans and former Soviet republics look set to continue, with further US sanctions in response. A summit in Washington, previously floated for 2019, appears to be in jeopardy, though the two could potentially meet at the next G-20 summit in Japan in June.
Trump’s sudden decisions to pull US troops out of Syria and Afghanistan – long-standing Russian demands – and the coming departure of Defence Secretary and Russia hawk James Mattis won praise from the Kremlin, but officials there remain sceptical a genuine detente is possible.
> Worst case: US-Russian relations descend into open hostility, affecting arms control and areas where they had until now been able to cooperate.
> Risk: High
Trade wars
The 90-day tariff truce that Trump and President Xi Jinping agreed at the recent G-20 expires at the end of February. If they fail, US tariffs would rise on a US$200bil (RM834.8bil) tranche of imports from China. The whipsaw on the S&P 500, as events repeatedly boosted and then undermined belief in the truce, show the stakes.
> Worst case: A full-fledged trade war that expands into an open struggle for strategic dominance by the end of the year, undermining growth and security around the globe. > Risk: High
Also by February, the US Commerce Department is due to rule on whether automobile imports constitute a national security threat, a designation that would let the US slap higher tariffs on imports of cars without technically breaching World Trade Organization rules. European, and in particular German car manufacturers have most to lose. US trade talks with Japan could take place any time from January, with more scope for a deal than with the EU. The Japan G-20 summit could be tense as a result.
> Worst case: The US raises tariffs on auto imports, triggering a full-fledged trade war with Europe. The G-20, made impotent by rising nationalism, loses relevance.
> Risk: High
To close out the year, unless the US stops blocking appointments to the appellate body of the WTO in Geneva, the trade body will on Dec 10 lose the minimum three judge quorum needed to issue rulings.
> Worst case: The world loses its dispute resolution mechanism for trade disputes.
> Risk: High
War wars
US pressure on Iran will build, after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and, in November, reimposed so-called secondary sanctions on companies from other countries that breach US sanctions. The strategy, backed by Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is to squeeze Iran out of Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and back to the nuclear negotiating table. So far the effort has had both limited cost and success, but with sanctions taking full effect, 2019 could be an eventful year. With so many flashpoints, the potential for escalation is clear.
> Worst case: Iran restarts nuclear fuel production, prompting a rapid escalation. Pressured, Teheran tries to block the Strait of Hormuz, where it has naval exer- cises scheduled for August and through which 30% of the world’s crude oil supply passes every day.
> Risk: Medium
North Korea would have topped any list of global security threats at the start of 2018, but the June summit between Trump and Kim Jongun defused an escalatory spiral of threats and ballistic missile tests. Things remain calm, but Kim shows no sign of genuinely dismantling his nuclear or missile programmes, and likely used the détente to stockpile nuclear material and improve his weapons systems. Kim says the arrogance of US demands is to blame for the lack of progress. Trump has said he wants another meeting, in January or February. Annual US-South Korean military exercises usually take place in March and August.
> Worst case: A summit bust-up that leads to a renewed cycle of escalation.
> Risk: Low
Afghanistan is due to hold presidential elections on April 20. The US, anxious to find an exit from a war that in 2019 will be in its 18th year, is raising the pace of peace talks with Islamist insurgents from the Taliban movement that ruled the country at the time of the 9/11 attacks on the US, in 2001. Washington is also pressuring Pakistan, the Taliban’s backer, to cooperate. Trump’s plan to cut the US troop presence in half, if it happens, could further undermine the government and its weak army, emboldening the Taliban to take an even tougher line.
> Worst case: The war intensifies and the government loses more ground as the Taliban pushes its advantage amid the US pullout.
> Risk: High
The war in Syria looks certain to continue for an eighth year with the planned US military withdrawal strengthening President Bashar al-Assad plus his Russian and Iranian backers. Turkey put off its planned offensive against ethnic Kurdish fighters who control much of northeast Syria after Trump’s surprise announcement of his plan to pull out of the country, but has vowed to defeat the erstwhile US allies. Trump’s move could also open the way for Iran to expand its presence in Syria, sparking more intense skirmishes with Israel. Russia may call time on a truce in which it agreed not to attack Idlib, the last major territory held by rebel groups fighting the Assad regime. The truce is designed to give Turkey time to clear militants and heavy weaponry from the area.
> Worst case: The war escalates into a wider conflict among regional powers, driving more refugees to Turkey and fragile states such as Jordan and Lebanon.
> Risk: High
European Disunion
The year 2019 has potential to become an annus horribilis for the European Union. While Italy looks to have averted for now EU fines for running an excessive deficit, the fragile coalition of two EU-skeptic populist parties in Rome is unlikely to wait long until it next takes on Brussels. A recession and early elections are possible, as they are in Spain. In December a far right party, Vox, won seats in a Spanish regional election for the first time since the death of General Franco. The stakes are high for Europe as a whole.
> Worst case: Greece on steroids, a new crisis that breaks up the euro.
> Risk:
Low
Then comes Brexit. The March 29 deadline for the UK to leave the EU approaches with no terms yet agreed and the British parliament so divided that it’s hard to predict an outcome. London is the seat of European finance and the UK has one of the EU’s largest economies and militaries. The Bank of England, controversially, has projected Brexit to cost anywhere from 1.5% to 10.5% of the country’s GDP over five years, depending on how the UK leaves.
> Worst case: A bitter, disorderly no-deal Brexit that imposes heavy economic costs on both sides and damages security cooperation against common threats. > Risk: Low
The May 23-26 elections to the European Parliament is shaping up as a major test of the EU’s popularity and of the upstart nationalist and populist parties straining against it. Former Trump strategist and altright hero Steve Bannon has said he will co-ordinate the campaigns of nationalist parties across the bloc. Leading the charge against them? A diminished French President Emmanuel Macron and lame duck German Chancellor Angela Merkel. All of the above will feed into the always fraught selection, by late October, of the next presidents of the European Central Bank, European Commission and European Council.
> Worst case: The populists win big, gaining enough seats in parliament both to hobble the EU’s legislative process and boost prospects for nationalist victories and agendas across Europe.
> Risk of populist gains: High
Trump
If the last two years have been eventful, 2019 will be more so. The Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump election campaign and Russia could deliver its findings in the first part of the year. These won’t necessarily be made public, or produce any impeachable offense. Yet they will add to turmoil and distraction in a White House that, after November’s midterm rout of Republicans in the House and the departure of Mattis and other key officials seen as stabilising factors on the mercurial president, will increasingly be on the defensive with a hostile Congress spoiling for new investigations, including into Trump’s finances. The political temperature will only rise through the year, as both Trump and his opponents move to campaign ahead of the presidential election in 2020.
> Worst case: Political gridlock in Washington and yet more Twitter bombs launched into sensitive foreign policy issues to draw attention away from the investigation.
> Risk: High