It Was a Bad Year for the World’s Autocrats @WSJ IMO.- Syria fell thanks to Israel's actions against Islamic regime power/proxies in the Middle East. IMO - It will be a bad four years for Autocrats, Dictators, Terrorists with a change in U.S. foreign policy (especially towards the Islamic Regime in Iran but others as well). In Syria, rebels raced to Damascus, ending Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year-old dictatorship, which few in the outside world thought was in danger of collapse. In August, student protests sent Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year reign in Bangladesh crashing down. In a world President Biden has cast as split between democracies aligned against a rising tide of autocracy, authoritarians suffered unexpected setbacks in 2024 that exposed their weaknesses, geopolitical analysts and historians said. To be sure, most despotic governments are still firmly in place, from Miguel Díaz-Canel in Havana to Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Russia—with the help of Iranian arms, North Korean troops and oil sales to China—has made battlefield gains against Ukraine. The alignment of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea—a group some analysts call “Crink”—has grown stronger. China is leapfrogging the West in some key technologies and has built strong ties with U.S. neighbors in Latin America. Political analysts who study democracies and autocracies warn that it is difficult to predict when authoritarian rule will crumble in a given country. For almost a decade, Assad benefited from an alignment with Russia, Iran and a group of militias antagonistic toward Israel... The group presented a strategic counterweight to the U.S. and Israel in the Middle East and appeared to be growing stronger last year as the Arab world began recognizing Syria and Iran diplomatically after years of isolating them. This alliance was tested after Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. And in just over a year, it crumbled. Russia and Iran didn’t have the strength to prevent Assad’s fall. Among foreign powers, the biggest loser from Assad’s fall was Iran’s theocratic government. It had extended billions of dollars of oil sales to Syria on credit, had hopes of building a new business empire in the country and used it as a perch from which to threaten Israel. The Iranian currency has fallen hard, and discontent is widespread. The government also faces a dire energy shortage that has caused electricity outages, despite having some of the world’s biggest reserves of natural gas and crude oil. The problems could worsen as Trump has said he would resume what he calls maximum-pressure policies on Iran. In Russia, the ruble is plunging and inflation is soaring. The Biden administration’s decision to ratchet up sanctions on Russia’s Gazprombank could gum up Moscow’s already constrained trade with commercial partners. The country has suffered 750,000 casualties in the war in Ukraine, the U.K. estimates...“[Putin’s] hand is weaker now,” Myanmar’s military junta, which heavily relies on trade and diplomatic support from Beijing, has lost bases and vast stretches of territory to various rebel groups. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/it-was-a-bad-year-for-the-worlds-autocrats-8eee850b
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