The 2025 global balance of power: 5 major players

The immediate future of the world and its 8.231 billion people depends on the strategic minds and decisions of only five people: US President Donald Trump, China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, whoever is the UN/NATO/EU decision-maker and, of course, the emerging expanded BRICS leader.

There are five strategic questions that should be decided by these five most important leaders: First, should the Russia-Ukraine war be ended or be escalated? Once Trump and Putin sit down and arrive at a fair and honorable diplomatic solution to this protracted armed struggle, Volodymir Zelensky and his EU and NATO allies shall definitely march to the cadence dictated by Washington and Moscow.

If Ukraine should stubbornly refuse a diplomatic solution, then the fighting shall escalate and if Trump decides to withdraw assistance to Kiev, Ukraine shall end up a bitter and devastated loser. That is how the cookie crumbles. Without the US, NATO and the EU won't persist in staking their resources to keep Ukraine fighting.

The second question is: should the escalation of the conflicts in western Asia led by Israel continue or should it be stopped. Once Donald Trump summons to Washington this guy Benjamin Netanyahu and tells him to stop bombing Gaza and killing innocent civilians, Israel will not have any other option but to put a stop to the armed conflicts.

However, Iran can throw a monkey wrench into any solution, diplomatic or military, to the Middle East conflicts, if Russia keeps on propping up Iran's support of Hamas in Palestine and Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, the ragtag remnants of Syrian opposition to the new regime in Damascus, and Lebanon's Hezbollah. That is why the solution to the Middle East crisis is again in the hands of Trump and Putin.

The third question is whether the increasing tensions in the West Philippine Sea shall end or shall continue depends on two powerful men: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Will Trump continue to build more US bases in the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, and add more fuel to the heightening conflicts in the Taiwan Straits, in the Sea of Japan and in the West Philippine Sea?

Will Beijing not stop or at the very least, minimize its provocations against Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines? Will Beijing not stop its shameless violations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas or UNCLOS? Only two powerful men can resolve these pivotal issues.

Fourth, will Russia continue to give aid and comfort to another bad boy in the Asia-Pacific basin, Kim Jong-un, in exchange for more than 12,000 North Korean combatants deployed by the Kremlin to Ukraine? Will North Korea continue in its unabashed and audacious buildup of nuclear power, which continues to destabilize the peace and harmony in the Asia-Pacific basin?

Fifth, will the territorial boundary and related conflicts between China and India escalate? Or would BRICS, to which both of the two most-populated countries of the world belong, be able to tone down the rhetoric and the diplomatic standoff between Beijing and New Delhi.

India is emerging as a formidable challenger of China. It has already surpassed China's population and its trajectory is toward catching up and even beating the Chinese economic development. And so, aside from Trump, Xi, and Putin, we should add the name of India's durable and charming Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The strength of China is its advances in modern technology, its democratic system of government, and its acceptability both to the NATO/EU axis and the emerging BRICS-allied anti-US countries.

Imagine the world's survival, progress, or destruction depends on the minds and hearts of only four men: Trump, Putin, Xi, and Modi. I shudder at the far-reaching possibilities and unimaginable implications and consequences. What do you think?