A world of conflict: The top risks of 2024

Top Risks 2024 with Ian Bremmer, Cliff Kupchan, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, and Marietje Schaake

2024 is shaping up to be a turbulent year. The war in Ukraine is heading into a stalemate that puts the country on the road to partition. Israel's invasion of Gaza risks expanding to a region-wide war. And in the United States, the presidential election is pitting a divided country against itself with unprecedented risks for its democracy. Throw in AI growing faster than governments can keep up, China's rumbly grumbly economy, and El Nino weather, and you're starting to get the picture.

All those trends and more made it onto Eurasia Group's annual Top Risk project for 2024. As a political risk consultancy, Eurasia Group strives to keep clients informed of the global affairs that will impact their interests and bottom lines. The Top Risks project takes the view from 30,000 feet every year, summarizing the biggest and most dangerous unknowns that will affect everyone, political junkie or not.

GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon sat down with Eurasia Group Founder and President Ian Bremmer and Chairman Cliff Kupchan to work through their list of Top Risks for 2024 alongside Susan Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker and co-author of "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021"; Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, CEO & President of the International Peace Institute and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Marietje Schaake, International Policy Fellow, Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The big throughline this year? Events spiral out of control even against the wishes of major players. Whether it's possible escalation between Israel and Iranian proxies, Chinese retaliation to the result of the Taiwanese election, or central banks finding themselves squeezed into a corner by persistent inflation, the sheer number of moving parts presents a risk in and of itself.

Take a deep dive with the panel in our full discussion, livestreamed on Jan. 8.

More from GZERO Media

Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks during his visit and after a binational council of ministers, in Jacmel, Haiti, on Jan. 22, 2025.
REUTERS/Marckinson Pierre

President Donald Trump ordered a suite of tariffs and visa revocations against Colombian government officials on Sunday after Bogota refused to accept two US planes carrying deported migrants – resulting in an abrupt about-face by Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

Residents of south Lebanon, who were displaced during the war, tried to return to their villages still occupied by Israel despite the expiration of the 60-day ceasefire implementation period. These Lebanese Muslim Shiite women inspect their destroyed house in the southern Lebanese border village of Ayta ash-Shaab after returning to their devastated hamlet.

Marwan Naamani/dpa via Reuters Connect

Hostilities continued on Sunday in southern Lebanon, where more than 22 Lebanese civilians were killed and over 124 wounded by Israeli forces, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Internally displaced civilians from the camps in Munigi and Kibati carry their belongings as they flee following the fight between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Jan. 26, 2025.
REUTERS/Aubin Mukoni

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are closing in on Goma, the largest city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after killing a Congolese military governor who was visiting the area on Thursday. Flights are grounded, roads are blocked, and there is “mass panic and flight among the population” of one million people, according to UN special representative for Congo Bintou Keita.

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, on Jan. 21, 2025.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in their first phone call on Friday over the independence of Taiwan. Will this set a bad early tone for US-China relations under President Donald Trump?

- YouTube

The shifting geopolitical landscape and uncertainty surrounding the future of AI have stirred anxiety among those gathered in Davos. Yet, there are glimmers of hope. “The most important thing for me is really to turn the anxiety into action," said Teresa Hutson, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft.

Migrants line up to leave the United States for Mexico after being deported across the Paso del Norte international border bridge after President Donald Trump promised mass deportation operation, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Jan. 23, 2025.
REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

As Donald Trump begins to roll out his plans for the “largest deportation operation in history,” Mexico, the country with the highest number of unauthorized citizens living in the US — some 4 million people — is preparing to welcome back thousands of deportees. Mexico plans to send anyone from elsewhere back to their home countries.

President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

During his first week in office, Donald Trump took steps to withdraw the US from two major international commitments: the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. Will this create opportunities for other global powers, not least China, to fill the void?