The year 2022 was a tumultuous one for global politics. The war in Ukraine upended the global economy – still facing the effects of Covid-19 – and threatened global peace and stability.
Across the world, leaders had to adapt to the changing scenarios while resolving internal issues within their own countries.
Europe was nervous that it may face a situation akin to World War II, the US was cautious not to begin a new Cold War with Russia and China, countries in West Asia witnessed unrest and the UK saw three prime ministers in a span of a couple of months.
Some leaders managed to fight those adversities and lead their people, while others wilted in the face of challenges.
Here are 2022’s top leaders whose actions gained global attention:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a proactive approach to ensure cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
In the initial phases of the war, when European and American leaders sided with Ukraine, PM Modi made sure India sided with peace and called Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and urged them to give diplomacy a chance – more than once.
“Today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this,” PM Modi told Vladimir Putin – a remark that drew praise and was even adopted by the G20 members in their draft communique.
In 2023, the global focus on India as it hosts the G20 summit in New Delhi. PM Modi has promised the world that India will become a global factory and counter China’s dominance of global trade and supply chains.
PM Modi said earlier in December that G20 offers the opportunity to India to showcase its capability to the world.
“Today, the greatest challenges we face – climate change, terrorism, and pandemics – can be solved not by fighting each other, but only by acting together,” PM Modi said.
Amid the chaos, PM Modi emerged as a global leader who united the world.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
When Zelensky ignored US’ intelligence reports that Russia would invade Ukraine, he took a gamble.
He chose to trust his neighbour and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but on February 24, 2022, when Russia struck Kyiv with missiles he became a laughing stock for his detractors.
The US was quick to offer him a safe route and become a leader-in-exile, like the Allies did with French wartime leader Charles de Gaulle when Hitler’s Nazi army invaded France and installed Vichy as the French president at the height of the second World War.
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky reportedly said. And 300 days later, he is still there, visiting frontlines, meeting old Ukrainian mothers whose sons and daughters are fighting a war, speaking to children and assuring them that he will be there, no matter what comes.
And it has boosted morale of the Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russian troops.
They know their leader was once an actor and a standup comedian and may know nothing about war but they know that their leader is doing what he does best – tell the world that Ukraine is under attack and get help.
And he got the help he wanted. He received weapons from the US and other allies which thwarted Russia’s so-called ‘special military operation’ and Ukrainian forces are now planning to retake areas occupied by the Russian forces.
His achievements were recognised by the Time Magazine, which named him as its person of the year.
For the menacing tiger that is Vladimir Putin, Zelensky turned out to be a wily, guile porcupine.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
When Rishi Sunak lost the elections to Liz Truss early September, he may have felt it was over.
But when the MP from Richmond (Yorks) became the prime minister seven weeks later – the first person of Indian descent to lead the country which colonised India for two centuries – he knew that he is the prime minister that the people of the UK needed and not the one that the Conservative Party of the UK wants.
But why shall the UK not want Rishi Sunak to lead, despite him being the most eligible candidate for the top job?
Take note – Rishi Sunak was not elected by the people of the UK but by his own party people.
The same party people who preferred Liz Truss – simply because she was white, English and more palatable to the right-leaning faction of the Conservative Party.
The Conservative Party felt that by electing Truss as Prime Minister they would have ticked the liberal checkbox by selecting the UK’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, ignoring the remarkable work Sunak did as UK finance minister at the height of the pandemic by saving jobs and extending furloughs.
However, Truss ended up being the UK’s shortest-serving former prime minister, resigning after seven weeks.
The same policies that Sunak warned against, Truss implemented, leading to her (and the UK economy’s) fall.
Sunak stepped in and took over the reins of the country and is currently helping the UK wade through its cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation.
He was also there in Ukraine, standing next to Zelensky and assuring him of UK’s support.
Sunak is also not sparing China, calling it the single-largest threat to democracy.
But closer home, unions and the NHS staff’s strikes are posing fresh challenges, but even his critics know that the shy, soft-spoken Sunak has a plan.
French President Emmanuel Macron
2022 was a record-setting year for Emmanuel Macron.
He was the fourth French President to be reelected to office and while his critics were unsure of his survival in French politics, but he joined the ranks of Charles de Gaulle, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.
The liberals in Europe heaved a sigh of relief seeing far-right candidate Marine Le Pen defeated – for the moment, France is an emblem of democracy.
Macron did not rest on his laurels.
Macron understood that Europe should not just rely on the US for its own security, so he travelled to Kyiv and then to Moscow, to meet Putin and convince him to end his ‘military operation’.
Macron in 2022 reminded people of former German chancellor Angela Merkel.
He emerged as one of Europe’s tallest leaders, taking charge as neighbours grew wary of Putin and his ambitions.
“The job of a diplomat is to talk to everybody and particularly to the people we disagree with,” Macron said, in response to criticism from his eastern European counterparts who were not happy when he said ‘Russia should not be humiliated’.
“Independence doesn’t mean equal treatment. The US are our allies. But we don’t want to depend on them,” Macron said and he also kept his word.
When he met US President Joe Biden, he ensured that his American counterpart knew that France was not happy with the AUKUS submarine deal.
He did not take the humiliation lying down and forced his American counterpart to accept that the US was ‘clumsy’.
As for the other two leaders who participated in his humiliation, UK’s Boris Johnson and Australia’s Scott Morrison, one was ousted by his own ministers and the other was voted out.
Taiwan President Tsai-Ing Wen
Tsai Ing-wen is readying herself for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan and she knows that the day will come.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been clear – reunify Taiwan with the motherland, if required, forcibly and Tsai Ing-Wen is paying attention.
She has studied Volodymyr Zelensky closely and extended support to Ukraine because she knows that nothing angers autocrats more than flourishing democracies extending support to one another.
She also weathered the storm quite remarkably when China carried out war drills around Taiwan in reaction to former US House Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
According to several experts, the war drills were nothing but a preparation for an invasion – that could come as soon as 2027.
But Tsai is not scared. Speaking to the Atlantic, she said that Taiwan may be unfortunate to have a big neighbour but that makes Taiwan stronger.
Tsai Ing-wen has been very clear regarding how the world should view Taiwan.
Taiwanese sovereignty does not need validation from other countries but what Taiwan needs is moral support from other democracies and assurance that they will help Taiwan face Xi Jinping’s war machine from the very moment its engines start purring.
“We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China (Taiwan), and we have our own system of running the country, and we do have a government and we have a military, and we have elections,” Tsai told the BBC in a interview in 2020.
As Xi struts about Beijing, happy with how he decimated the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Tsai Ing-Wen is readying herself and the people of her country for an invasion and silently making Taiwan economically and militarily resilient.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
If the so-called ‘woke mob’ is bothering you, help is not far away and help has come in the form of Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
After grabbing the headlines by implementing the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law which bars classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students, DeSantis emerged like a messiah for those who were looking for a more palatable version of Donald Trump.
His fans were overjoyed when he was reelected as Florida governor earlier as they chanted ‘two more years’.
Yes, in two more years DeSantis could be the US President, defeating Joe Biden and the Democrats in the 2024 Presidential Elections.
“We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said in his speech, which was met with loud, raucous cheers.
But it is not the just his anti-woke stance that has won him admirers, his model of governance during the pandemic where he allowed individuals to decide whether they want to take the risk of venturing out and also allowed businesses to remain open, showed the world and the rest of the US that there was indeed a way out other than lockdowns.
Florida’s population grew, unemployment remained below national average and the education system improved.
He also took steps to restore America’s Everglades, demonstrating his commitment towards saving the environment and fighting climate change.
His anti-woke stance may fuel violence against the LGBTQIA+ communities, but Conservative America has found its new hero.
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