Concepts of our late history by Nadja Forcythe-Reid

ISIS

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 15:36:20 UTC

ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a Sunni jihadist movement. They preach a violent ideology (caliphate) and claim religious authority over all Muslims. ISIS was initially affiliated with al-Qaeda but started acting independently in 2013. The group have engaged in both domestic and international terrorist attacks. Most notable international terrorist attacks include the Paris attacks in 2015 and Brussels bombing in 2016. The Iraqi and Syrian governments assured the group were defeated in 2017 after international efforts of stopping them but they have remained active and resurfaced in Syria in 2024.

BREXIT

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 15:58:05 UTC

The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, coined BREXIT, occured in 2016 after a national referendum. After the initial referendum, the United Kingdom spent almost four years negotiating the details of the seperation. The UK went through several prime ministers during this period and suffered greatly through this transition. The seperation was made official in January 2020, almost four years after the intitial vote. The vote has been heavily criticised for the lack of information provided to voters prior to the voting process and for its almost 50/50 voting outcome.

TRUMP

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:06:13 UTC

Donald Trump is an American politician, media personality, and a businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. He became the president of his family's real estate business in 1971 and renamed it the Trump Organisation. After several bankruptices and several failed businesses, Trump became the host of the American TV show, The Apprentice. He then miraculously won the 2016 presidential election for the Republican party. He served his first term in office and after losing the presidential election in 2020 to Joe Biden, he instigated the January 6th Capitol attacks. In 2023 he was convicted and found liable in civil cases for sexual abuse, and defamation and business fraud. Trump then won the presidential elections in 2024 which made him the first American president who was also a felon. His presidential residing and cult-like followers have reshaped the overall social climate of America and continue to do so.

UKRAINE

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:09:24 UTC

Ukraine is a country in Europe that is currently at war with Russia. The Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2014 when Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. This was the massively escalated in in 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine. This war is still ongoing and triggered a refugee crisis aswell as thousands of deaths. Ukraine, lead by their president Zelensky, has had mostly international support and aid due to this unsanctioned invasion and attack.

COVID-19

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:11:23 UTC

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease that caused a global pandemic in 2019. The outbreak began in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and spread globally by early 2020. The disease caused respiratory issues and in severe cases, death. This pandemic triggered lockdowns, restrictions and global panic. Several vaccines were made and distributed throughout the world. COVID-19 claimed over 7 million peoples lives and has caused long-term health issues for millions of others. The virus still isn't fully eradicated but due to vaccines and the ongoing study of the virus, it no longer poses a massive threat globally.

GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:13:04 UTC

The global refugee crisis refers to the ongoing difficulties in reception of the overwhelming amount of refugees. The refugee crisis has been traced back to the 1950s but has become more dire and drastic in recent history, particulary after the crisis in Syria (2012). The amount of displaced refugees has continued to grow year after year. One main reason for this growth is conflict in these countries, and of the 10 largest refugee crises in the world today, all 10 countries of origin have violence or conflict ongoing. Some factors that aren't automatically considered in a guarantee in refugee status are violation of human rights, hunger/famine and climate change. All three of these causes have become more prevalent today in many countries, displacing people from their homes.

SYRIA

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:15:04 UTC

Syria is a country in the middle east that has faced multiple years of internal conflict that began in 2011. This internal conflict escalated into a full-fledged civil war by 2012. Many problems such as political, economic and even climate that ended up contributing to this conflict. Syria has been in a state of crisis since and has faced years of conflict that is still ongoing.

CLIMATE CHANGE

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:18:04 UTC

Climate change is defined as long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts can be natural but since the 1800s, human activities have been the main cause. In 1938, scientist Guy Callender was the first the raise the question of carbon emissions raising the global temperature. This was disregared by other experts and climate change was only widely accepted much later. One of the main causes of climate change is burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels creates greenhouse gas emissions which then act like a blanket wrapped around Earth. This causes the suns heat to become trapped and heats up the Earths surface. Climate change continues to this day, with little chance of improving. It has already been the cause for multiple natural disasters and continues on this path. Experts hypothesise different outcomes but the main consensus is that we will eventually be the demise of Earth if nothing major is done and the Earth will slowly become inhabitable for humans.

POPULISM

nadjaforcythereid — 2025-08-28 16:22:10 UTC

Populism is the concept that society is seperated into two groups - 'the pure people' and 'the corrupt elite'. Populist parties can be anywhere on the political spectrum but as of late, the most popular populists are on the radical right. Typical populist leaders have several defining characteristics such as behaving 'badly', perpetuating a state of crisis, expressing distrust the democratic processes etc. This political movement has gained a lot of traction in recent history due to prominent political characters such as Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Hugo Chavez.