The global financial and economic crisis very much dominated the newspaper headlines in 2009 and nearly all industrialised countries were in recession for most of the year.
The G20 summit in London in April rejected protectionism and announced a $1.1 trillion deal to tackle the crisis which included new financial regulations, a common approach to cleaning up banks' toxic assets and more funds for developing countries and global trade.
Although the global economic situation is still fragile, the various economic measures taken seem to have paid off and the US emerged from recession last October, while the eurozone and Japan did the same in November. The UK, however, is still in recession.
The year began with Barack Obama taking office as US president in January. Obama presided over a massive economic stimulus package, as well as huge job creation programmes. He got his healthcare legislation passed in the House of Representatives and this is now being debated in the Senate. The President also reversed his predecessor's position on climate change and announced new targets for reducing greenhouse gases.
On the global front, Obama has been committed to engagement with the international community. He gave a landmark speech in Cairo in June, where he reached out to the Muslim world, and also announced that Guantanamo will be closed in 2010 but not by the original January deadline. In July, the US and Russia reached an outline agreement to cut their nations' stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
In October, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". I feel it was well-deserved, as Obama has definitely created a new (better) climate in international politics after the Bush years, which were characterised by unilateralism and global hostility towards America.
Obama inherited a very difficult situation in Iraq and pledged to end US combat operations there by August 31, 2010 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2011. Obama's record in the Middle East has been disappointing and it seems US presidents find it difficult to exert real pressure on Israel.
The Taliban intensified their attacks, not only in Afghanistan, but also in nuclear-armed Pakistan, sending shockwaves throughout the international community.
Afghan-istan's presidential election was controversial and Hamid Karzai's re-election was marred by claims of irregularities. Obama launched his 'surge' of an additional 30,000 US troops, but most analysts believe that the political element in the equation will be as important as the military one in bringing peace and stability to the country.
Unfortunately, the world's nuclear standoff with North Korea and Iran worsened this year. Pyongyang expelled IAEA inspectors, restarted its nuclear facilities, tested ballistic missiles, quit the six-party talks and conducted its second nuclear test. Teheran has moved closer to developing nuclear weapons and still insists its nuclear facilities are for peaceful energy purposes.
What took place after June's Iranian presidential election was indeed historic. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 'landslide re-election' was immediately challenged by his main rival, opposition leader Hossein Mousavi, who accused the President of massive electoral fraud. Anti-government demonstrations soon broke out, the likes of which have not been seen since the revolution of 1979.
In Europe, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which comes into force on January 1, 2010, meant that the EU could finally concentrate on major non-institutional issues.
EU leaders seem to have got cold feet when they appointed Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy as the first permanent President of the European Council and Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Both are low profile figures and Baroness Ashton has no foreign policy experience.
The most important European election was the one in Germany in September, which saw Chancellor Angela Merkel emerge victorious at the helm of a centre-right Christian Democratic - Liberal alliance, which had not been in office since 1998. Merkel's victory was important because it paved the way for important economic reforms that the country so badly needs.
The outcome of June's European Parliament elections was good news for the centre-right European People's Party, which remained the largest bloc in spite of a gloomy economic climate, largely blamed on the excesses of capitalism. The election was a bad result for the Socialists, who lost seats and failed to come up with solutions to the current crisis.
Other important events in Europe included Switzerland's vote to ban the building of minarets - which could lead to a Muslim backlash, Iceland's application to join the EU, the lifting of Silvio Berlusconi's immunity by the Italian Constitutional Court which could see the prime minister face a series of trials for fraud, tax evasion and bribery, and the defeat of Greece's centre-right government by the Socialists - followed by the claim that the country faced a budget deficit of 12.7 per cent of GDP and a public debt of 135 per cent of GDP.
Other significant events in 2009 include the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, a political giant, the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on 'compassionate' grounds from a Scottish jail and the outbreak of swine flu.
Of course, the big event of the year could be a deal on climate change at the UN summit in Copenhagen. As I write, a deal appears to be in sight after two difficult weeks of negotiations; both the US and China, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, have indicated they may make concessions.