A Ukrainian soldier’s silhouette is seen in Kharkiv on March 30, 2022, as a gas station burns behind him after Russian attacks on the city.
Choosing the top five most geopolitically significant events of 2022 is no easy feat. Russia’s (re)invasion of Ukraine clearly stands at the top of the list for the myriad of immediate and lingering implications, though events in and of themselves are rarely as significant as the broader trends and shifts they reflect. That is why, in compiling the below list, we focused on the events over the past year that had the furthest-reaching impacts (both geographically and temporally) and/or represented key shifts in greater global patterns. There were, of course, numerous “honorable mentions,” but we were ultimately able to narrow it down to these final five: The Most Geopolitically Significant Events of 2022 5) The Artemis I Mission (Nov. 16-Dec 11, 2022) NASA successfully launched the Artemis I rocket on Nov. 16, sending an uncrewed Orion space capsule to the moon that returned to Earth on Dec. 11.
