The Most Important Issue in World Politics?

This is a hard question to answer, for multiple reasons - there is rarely one single most important issue or problem within any given subject. Also, the term “world politics” can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, and since we do not have a particular definition at this point, there will probably be very different answers to this question. With my answer, I’ll try to be brief:

I believe that at the moment, one of the most important issues in world politics - or any politics, or the world at large - is the economy: Governments and corporations need to keep the economies of the world stable and out of recession, and they need to keep most people employed. Being able to do that would result in the most prosperity for countries and their citizens. Money may be considered to be the “root of all evil” in some circumstances, but without it counties can starve, businesses both large and small can collapse, value of property goes down, and people can lose their jobs or even their homes. A stable economy is vital to the prosperity of any country or state.

How the “world” in world politics ties into this is simple - no country is isolated from the others. When one country’s economy falls into a recession, inevitably many of the others will do the same. In the past few years, the U.S, and much of Europe and Asia have all been in what many consider to be the worst recession since the Great Depression - or since World War II, in the case of Europe. Markets rise and fall in response to each other, and no country’s economy is disconnected from the others. 

Simply put, the most important issue in world politics is the struggle to maintain the world’s economy - a problem that is far from easily solved.