The post-Cold War era is over and a dangerous new era of great power competition has begun.

A repressive law limiting criticism of the Thai monarchy has placed the current king beyond reproach, but popular discontent with the legislation and the monarchy is growing. 

He recalls the popular challenge now underway against Omar al-Bashir’s rule in Sudan; the deaths of Kofi Annan, the first African secretary General of UN, and Winnie Mandela, a flawed leader of the South African liberation movement; the highly positive emergence of the reform-minded Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister; and the international attention to Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace prize for his work with rape victims.