15.4 Ongoing Problems and Solutions

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe threats to global peace and security since the end of the Cold War
• Identify some consequences of migration and refugee resettlement in Europe and the United States
• Identify recent and current threats to human rights around the world
• Analyze the effects on poorer nations of the increasing division between the Global North and the Global South

On February 24, 2022, the world watched in horror and frustration as Russian tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border and began bombing cities around the former Soviet republic. This was the second time in fewer than ten years that Russian troops had invaded the nation. In 2014, Russian forces had annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. While both invasions were decades in the making, to many they seemed like a rerun of a bygone era. Those who had watched Soviet tanks roll into Budapest and Prague to quell uprisings in the 1950s and 1960s saw the invasion of 2014 and the violence of 2022 as a reminder that some problems, no matter how far in the past, remain unresolved.