YDS 2021 in Review

The buzzwords circulating at the end of 2020 were as nauseating in their number as
they were disappointing in their cliches. Picking a word to summarise the first year
of the pandemic was all too easy. So, at the end of 2021, I was expecting the same
oversaturation of awfully simple tags to capture the year that was. However, this did
not eventuate. I’ve got nothing. At this point, I’d love something as sickeningly
overused as “unprecedented” to help me out.
Instead, at the end of 2021, what we have been left with is a series of incredibly
bleak developments.
2021 was testing for democracy. Six days into the new year, Australians awoke to
scenes of the most major assault on the US Capitol in two centuries (pg. 1) in
extreme efforts to overturn the result of the country’s 2020 Presidential election.
Myanmar erupted into a military coup in February (pg. 73) which has seen the
imprisonment of an icon of the nation’s pro-democracy movement and former
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. There were major student-led protests in Thailand (pg. 69),
crackdowns on journalists in Belarus (pg. 24), and concerning surveillance of human
rights workers in several countries through the use of Pegasus spyware (pg. 128).
Even Biden’s December Summit for Democracy failed to elevate hopes of change,
and instead brought attention to the ill health of the world’s democracies and the
work that is still needed to uphold democratic principles and keep leaders
accountable.
2021 stoked old conflicts and tensions. Airstrikes in Gaza (pg. 114), geopolitical
contests over the Black Sea (pg. 28), Kanak separatism in New Caledonia (pg. 44)
following the final failed independence referendum, and civil war in Ethiopia (pg. 98)
were just some examples. Disturbing images from Afghanistan after the final US
troop withdrawals in August were another unforgettable stain on the year (pg. 86)
and we will no doubt wear the horror of that memory for years to come.
2021 also represented yet another year of new precedents for the climate crisis,
with Europe’s summer afflicted by a series of detrimental fires across the continent
(pg. 41), severe droughts in Central Asia (pg. 56), and increased water scarcity in the
Middle East (pg. 109). A new era of space exploration (pg. 132) left many feeling as if
we had abandoned hopes for our ‘Planet A,’ and repeated shocks to global supply
chains reminded us of the unsustainable nature of global consumption and trade.
(pg. 141).