2023 was an uncomfortable year for the West
The past 12 months have seen a number of setbacks for the US, Europe and other major democracies on the international politics stage. They point to a shifting balance of power from the US-dominated, Western values that have held sway for years. On many fronts, the wind is blowing in the wrong direction for Western interests. Here's why:
Ukraine
The war is not going well for Ukraine. By extension, it is going badly for Nato and the EU, which have bankrolled Ukraine's war effort and its economy to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
This time last year, hopes were high in Nato that, supplied with modern military equipment and intensive training in Western countries, Ukraine's army could press home the advantage it had gained that autumn and push the Russians out of much of the territory they had seized. That hasn't happened.
Obviously this situation is deeply disappointing for Ukraine. But why does it matter to the West?
It matters because President Putin, who personally ordered this invasion nearly two years ago, needs only to hold on to the territory he has seized (roughly 18% of Ukraine) to proclaim a victory.
Vladimir Putin
The Russian president is a wanted man. In theory. In March 2023, he was indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, along with his Commissioner for Children's Rights, for war crimes committed against Ukrainian children.
The West hoped this would make him an international pariah and bottle him up in his own country, unable to travel for fear of arrest and deportation to The Hague. That hasn't happened.
The fact is that while Mr Putin's invasion and brutal occupation of Ukraine is abhorrent to Western nations, it largely isn't to the rest of the world. Many nations see this as Europe's problem, with some putting the blame on Nato, saying it provoked Russia by expanding too far east.
Gaza
The West, Arab ministers told me recently at a summit in Riyadh, has double standards. "Your governments are hypocrites," I was told. Why, they asked me, do you expect us to condemn Russia for killing civilians in Ukraine when you refuse a ceasefire in Gaza, where thousands of civilians are being killed?
The war has clearly been catastrophic for all Gazans. It has also been bad for the West.
In the eyes of many around the world, it has made the US and UK appear complicit in the destruction of Gaza by protecting Israel at the UN.
The war has already spread to the southern Red Sea, where Iran-backed Houthis are launching explosive drones and missiles at ships, driving up commodity prices as the world's major shipping companies are forced to divert all the way round the southern tip of Africa.
Iran
Iran is under suspicion of secretly developing a nuclear weapon, which it denies. Yet despite Western efforts, it is far from isolated. This year, has seen it forge an ever-closer alliance with Moscow.
Designated as a hostile threat by several Western nations, Iran has benefited from the Gaza war by positioning itself in the Middle East as a champion of the Palestinian cause.
Africa's Sahel
One by one, the countries of the Sahel region of West Africa have been succumbing to military coups that have seen the expulsion of European forces.
The former French colonies of Mali, Burkina Faso and Central African Republic had already turned against the Europeans
when in July, yet another coup saw the ousting of a pro-Western president in Niger. The last French troops have now left the country, although 600 US troops remain there in two bases.
Meanwhile, South Africa, once seen as a Western ally, has been holding joint naval exercises with Russian and Chinese warships.
North Korea
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, this year, has forged close links with Russia.
North Korea has test-fired several intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are now believed capable of reaching most parts of the continental US.
China
China has shown no sign of backing down on its claims over most of the South China Sea, issuing a new "standard" map that extends its claims almost right up to the coastlines of several Asia-Pacific nations.
Nor has it given up its claims over Taiwan, which it has vowed to "take back", by force if necessary.