The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has long been a part of the fruitious marriage to the European mainland. In 2016, then Prime Minister David Cameron called for a vote on staying in or leaving the European Union where a slight majority voted to leave the Union. Because of this, the EU now maintains a precarious and insecure relationship with the United Kingdom. After more than 40 years of integration, the EU and the United Kingdom will need to come up with a mutually amicable divorce.

More than 258 million people are forcibly displaced as a result of climate, humanitarian, and socio-economic crises. 60 percent of these migrants are forced make their way to the EU to seek basic humanitarian assistance, such as provision of clean water, health care, emergency shelter and legal aid. However, under EU law, the Dublin Regulation states that asylum seekers have to remain in the first European country they enter, these being Europe's southern border countries where they receive minimal welfare provision.

The People’s Republic of China under Xi Jinping adopted the One Belt, One Road initiative in 2013 which saw the investment of billions of dollars into infrastructure development across cooperative Asian, African, and European states. Being second only to the United States in terms of nominal GDP, and the world’s biggest exporter of goods as well as the largest trading nation, China’s place in international trade is indisputable. However, the One Belt, One Road initiative has come under accusations that it is a plot to establish China’s dominance in global affairs under the guise of free trade.