2014 was dominated by the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the turmoil in Ukraine and the consequent deterioration in relations between Russia and the West, Israel’s invasion and bombardment of Gaza and the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa.

The sudden emergence and expansion of Islamic State, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, took the West by surprise. It managed to spread into Iraq as a result of its fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and it declared a caliphate in the vast areas in controls in both countries. The militant jihadist group, which even al-Qaeda considers too extreme, managed to swell its numbers by attracting Islamist radicals from Europe and America, and shocked the world’s conscience as a result of its absolutely revolting brutality.

Islamic State committed mass murder and crimes against humanity against Shi’ites, Christians, Yazidis, Kurds and Sunni tribesmen who opposed its extremist and backwards interpretation of militant Sunni Islam. Mass executions, including the public beheadings of men, women and children (and foreign hostages), as well as the capture of thousands of women and children to be used as sex slaves, have been the hallmarks of IS, making it as bad as the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge.

These horrendous atrocities led to an American-led campaign of air strikes against Islamic State and the arming of the Kurds, which have registered some success, but clearly much more needs to be done. US President Barack Obama, however, made it clear that military strikes alone would not be enough to defeat IS; this had to be coupled by genuine political reform in Iraq and Sunni-Shi’ite reconciliation.

After eight years in power, Nuri al-Maliki stepped down as Iraq’s prime minister. Al-Maliki, a Shi’ite, was criticised for having neglected the country’s Sunnis which led to some of them supporting the Islamic State. The new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, promised a programme of national reconciliation and reform.

Meanwhile in Syria, President Assad remained in power, backed by the Iranians and Russians; he faced attacks not only by IS and al-Qaeda but by the moderate Free Syrian Army, which began receiving US military support (rather late in the day). The civil war in Syria has produced 7.6 million internally displaced persons and over three million refugees, who have fled mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, putting an immense strain on these three countries.

In May, Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League Special Representative for Syria, resigned, dealing a massive blow to any hope of a settlement in the Syrian conflict.

Events in Ukraine led to a massive deterioration in relations between Russia and the EU and US, and some observers described the situation as a return to the Cold War. On February 22, after scores of people were shot dead in riots in Kiev, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia after being dismissed by Parliament.

Russia, ignoring international public opinion, then annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine (using ‘volunteers’) and backed separatists there. A ‘ceasefire’ between Ukraine and the rebels in the east took effect on September 5 but since then there have been at least 1,350 casualties. In all, over one million people have become displaced since the conflict began. In May the pro-Western Petro Poroshenko, who wants more integration with the EU and Nato, was elected President.

In reaction to Russia’s behaviour in Ukraine the EU and the US imposed economic sanctions on Moscow that targeted as number of companies including banks and energy firms. A number of Russian and Ukrainian individuals were also singled out for sanctions. Consequently the Russian economy was badly affected, inflation has surged and the rouble has plummeted.

Libya descended into chaos with the emergence of two rival parliaments and governments

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has remained defiant, and in his State of the Union speech earlier this month he insisted the West was targeting Moscow not because of the annexation of Crimea and support for the rebels in Eastern Ukraine but because of its “wish to survive as a nation, as a civilisation, as a State”. Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Russians still support Putin.

In a horrible development in this conflict in July a Malaysia Airlines flight crashed in eastern Ukraine killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. Two thirds of the passengers were Dutch while many of the other passengers were Australians and Malaysians. Eighty of the passengers were children under 18. An investigation found the plane had been hit by “high-energy objects”, most probably a surface-to-air missile launched by pro-Russia separatists. Moscow denied the accusation, blaming the Ukrainian government for the downing.

In a terrible twist of fate the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine came a few months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an hour after take-off en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Searches took place in the South China Sea and thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean but sadly the plane has still not yet been found. Of the 227 passengers, 152 were Chinese and 38 Malaysian.

In July Israel invaded Gaza in response to what it said was an increase in rocket attacks into Israel by Hamas militants. Seven weeks of Israeli airstrikes as well as a ground invasion by Israel resulted in the death of around 2,200 people, mostly Palestinian civilians; 66 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli civilians also died. Much of Gaza’s infrastructure was also destroyed.

A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was brokered by Egypt, with Israel agreeing to partially ease its blockade on Gaza to allow some aid and building materials. Israel’s invasion solved nothing; it only made the possibility of a long-term settlement between Israelis and Palestinians even more remote. The US-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2014 in fact went nowhere, and the continual building of Israel illegal settlements only poisoned the atmosphere between the two sides even more. A Fatah-Hamas unity agreement agreed to earlier in the year, furthermore, was used by Israel to freeze its negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

An Ebola epidemic spread rapidly in West Africa with fears that it could go global. There were a few isolated cases in Europe, the US and Nigeria, but almost all the 18,000 cases and 6,400 deaths so far occurred in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, exerting a huge strain on these countries’ healthcare systems. The United States led the international response to combat the deadly virus and sent military personnel and equipment to the region. Ebola has been contained to these three West African countries, but it will be some time before the virus stops spreading there. A vaccine is said to be in the pipeline.

As expected, after five years of economic crisis and concerns over migration, a number of eurosceptic, populist, far-right and far-left parties made gains in May’s European Parliament elections. The most dramatic results took place in France and the United Kingdom: Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front came first with a staggering 26 per cent of the vote and Nigel Farage’s anti-EU Ukip came first with 27.5 per cent of the vote.

However, the overwhelming majority of voters voted for mainstream pro-EU centrist parties, and the election was won by the centre-right European People’s Party, followed by the Socialists, Liberals and Greens. The victory of the EPP meant that Jean-Claude Juncker, former prime minister of Luxembourg, and Donald Tusk, former prime minister of Poland, were appointed President of the European Commission and President of the European Council, respectively on took office on November 1 and December 1.

Juncker made it clear that one of his main tasks was to encourage economic growth in Europe after the eurozone’s lacklustre performance in 2014. He appointed a number of reformers to his Commission and immediately announced a €300 billion investment plan.

In France, support for President François Hollande continued to decline as a result of the government’s poor economic record. Hollande’s Socialists suffered heavy losses in both local and European elections. In February Italian prime minister Enrico Letta resigned and was replaced by reformist Matteo Renzi, the young popular mayor of Florence, who has faced opposition from the unions in his attempts to bring about economic reforms. Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party, however, came first in the EP elections with 41per cent of the vote.

Chancellor Angela Merkel remained Europe’s undisputed leader and retained her popularity at home. Her centre-right CDU/CSU consolidated its lead at 35.3 per cent of the vote in the EP elections. In February Switzerland voted in a referendum to reintroduce quotas on EU migrants, causing some friction with Brussels.

In March former Spanish prime minister Adolfo Suárez, who presided over the transformation of Spain to a democracy, died. In June Spanish King Juan Carlos abdicated in favour of his son, Felipe. Although Juan Carlos is greatly respected for his role in the restoration of Spain’s democracy, the monarchy has been damaged in recent years by scandals. In fact it was announced last week that Princess Cristina, sister of Spain’s King Felipe VI, is to stand trial on tax fraud charges next year. In November 81 per cent of the electorate in Catalonia voted in favour of independence from Spain. The vote is non-binding because the Spanish Constitution states that the country as a whole has to vote on independence for the regions.

Voters in Scotland, however, rejected independence in a referendum by a margin of 55 per cent to 45 per cent. The ‘No’ vote was sealed after the main parties promised more devolution, and former prime minister Gordon Brown gave a brilliant speech in favour of the Union, but this raised the question of ‘devolution’ for England, with only English MPs being allowed to vote on English laws.

Events in Ukraine led to a massive deterioration in relations between Russia and the EU and US

Pope Francis continued to raise eyebrows among conservative clerical circles with some of his statements. Although a draft report which opened the Church more to gays and divorced and remarried Catholics at the Bishops’ Synod in Rome failed to get the required two thirds majority, it nonetheless got an absolute majority of votes from the bishops, signalling an important shift in the Church’s attitudes on certain social issues.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected President after 11 years as prime minister in Turkey. Erdogan adopted more of a high profile political role than previous presidents and Turkey unfortunately continued to drift towards authoritarianism, especially with regards to its treatment of journalists.

Despite a strong American economy and about 10 million Americans gaining health insurance in 2014 the Republicans took control of the Senate in the US’s mid-term elections in November, riding on a wave of discontent with Washington. Regardless, Obama showed he was no lame duck President and announced he would use an executive order to regularise the position of five million illegal immigrants in the country.

Obama also announced a landmark historic deal to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and to restore some economic links between the two countries. He also reached an important climate deal with China aimed at the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Tunisia proved to be the only success story of the Arab Spring when in January secularists and Islamists agreed to new democratic Constitution. October’s parliamentary election was won by the secular Nidaa Tounes party with 85 seats while the Islamist Ennahda party won 69 seats. Last week veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi, from the same secular party, won the presidential run-off election.

Libya, on the other hand, descended into chaos with the emergence of two rival parliaments and governments, one in Tripoli – which is under the control of an alliance of ‘Islamist’ militias from Misurata – and the other in Tobruk, where the internationally recognised administration is based. The two sides are engaged in a bloody conflict which is tearing the country apart. To make matters worse the eastern city of Benghazi, is under the control of Ansar al-Sharia, a jihadist movement with links to al-Qaeda.

In Egypt one can says that the gains of the revolution three years ago have been reversed. A new Constitution was approved by ‘98 per cent’ of the electorate in January and former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was elected President in May with ‘93 per cent of the vote’. A court later banned the political wing of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood.

Afghanistan signed security agreements with Nato and the US which will see Kabul in charge of its security at the end of this year. However, about 12,000 troops, most of them American, will remain in the country after December 31, 2014, to help with training the Afghan military and to fight al-Qaeda.

Although Pakistan suffered fewer terrorist attacks than in previous years, the Pakistani Taliban’s attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that left 148 people dead –132 of them children – shocked the country and the entire world. The brutality of the attack could serve as a turning point in Pakistan’s crackdown on terrorism.

Narendra Modi from the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was elected Prime Minister in India, on a platform to reform the economy. He crushed the outgoing Congress Party and said his victory marked “a new era” for India. Even though Bharatiya Janata is traditionally a right-wing Nationalist party, Modi has adopted a moderate stance in both foreign and domestic policy.

Six world powers (the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) and Iran failed to reach an agreement over Tehran’s nuclear development programme by the November 24 deadline, but thankfully agreed to extend talks for seven months. The aim is to reach a political agreement by March 1, 2015 and conclude the technical details of the deal by July 1.

A damning UN human rights report on North Korea was published on February 17, confirming once again that the regime in Pyongyang is the most oppressive in the world. “The gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world,” the report said. Despite this, China continued to support North Korean leader Kin Jong-Un, who earlier this year disappeared for six weeks, causing much speculation about his future.

Large pro-democracy protests took place in Hong Kong against China’s announcement that candidates for the post of chief executive of Hong Kong would be selected by a committee appointed by Beijing. The protests were the biggest challenge to Chinese rule since the handover of the territory to Beijing in 1997. On a more positive note the first high level China-Taiwan direct talks took place in February.

Obama announced a landmark historic deal to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, Joko Widodo was elected the country’s seventh president. In Japan Shinzo Abe was re-elected Prime Minister after he called an early poll when the country fell into recession. In Thailand there was yet another coup when quarrel between supporters and opponents of the Shinawatra political dynasty got out of hand.

In Nigeria the militant Islamic group Boko Haram continued with its brutal campaign of killings and the kidnapping of women and girls, posing a major threat to the country’s stability. It is estimated that 1,500 people have been killed in the violence this year.

In South Africa the African National Congress (ANC) won a handsome victory in the general election, with 62 per cent of the vote (down from 66 per cent), followed by the Democratic Alliance with 22 per cent (up from 17 per cent). Despite problems of unemployment and corruption, South Africans remained loyal to the ANC, and Jacob Zuma stayed on as President.

There was Christian-Muslim violence in Central African Republic, prompting a military intervention by France, which more or less restored the peace. Fighting also continued throughout much of the year in South Sudan.

Although Brazil fell into recession in the first half of the year Dilma Rousseff was still re-elected President, by a narrow margin. Brazil hosted the World Cup in July where Germany beat Argentina. There were protests throughout Brazil over the cost of staging of the Games, but the tournament went off smoothly.

There was plenty of unrest in Venezuela as demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the left-wing government of President Nicolás Maduro. The country’s inflation rate climbed to over 60 per cent.

In January former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 85, died after eight years in a coma. Sharon, a controversial figure, dominated Israel’s military and political landscape for decades.