"2017 will be the year of living dangerously," said former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. He said that the impact of Donald Trump's presidency "is the elephant in the room across the world". ''We can describe him as an old fashioned American nationalist of the type we've not seen in decades."
Rudd, who was delivering a talk at Raisina Dialogue, said that Trump's presidency would be largely a domestically determined one. However his global view could change geopolitics as he views China and not Russia as the threat to American supremacy. Also, Trump's view that Islam terror was the central security threat to the US and his scepticism of a global rules based order could upset world stability.
If he disregarded basic tenets of US-China ties like the One China policy, "we will find ourselves in deep waters".
Rudd noted that future of the European Union and NATO were other unsettling elements to look out for this year. He believed that EU could be re-energised with Germany and France putting their might behind it.
Then, there was the unravelling of the western democratic process with the rise of the far right and far left.
He feared that an economic crisis could be precipitated in this age of unstability.
In this year, when so many mega challenges are unfolding simultaneously, the demand for international political leadership is great, he said, expressing the hope that India would show the way.