‘‘‘Tis the season to be jolly,” goes the carol lyric by 19th century Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant.

But as 2017 ends close there is precious little on the world stage to celebrate.

President Trump dominated the year. His January inaugural speech portrayed a once-great America, misused by its elites and the rest of the world. It was a theme the self-styled populist president repeated at the same time as his first major political victory as the year ended handed tax cuts to the rich and benefits cuts to the poor.

In Asia, missile tests by North Korea and verbal belligerence between Kim Jong Un and Trump raised fears of war despite Chinese efforts to defuse the situation. A more potent nuclear-weapons cocktail than an unpredictable Korean leader and an impetuous US president is difficult to imagine.

China continued systematic efforts to increase global influence, from the huge Belt and Road transport links all the way to the edge of Europe to investment in soft power.

In the Middle East, the growing struggle for regional supremacy between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia intensified. The 32-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman won Trump’s unequivocal backing for the kingdom against Iran.

That manifested itself particularly in the tragedy of Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting Iranian-allied Houthi rebels since 2015. Apart from 10,000 war deaths, some 2,000 Yemenis have died of cholera and seven million are on the brink of starvation.

Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. It was a huge gift to Israel but what does the consummate deal-maker expect in return: a freeze on settlement building in the West Bank or perhaps pre-emptive military action against the Shia group Hezbollah in south Lebanon?

Meanwhile in Syria, President Bashar Al-Assad secured control over large swathes of the country, supported by Iran and a Russia newly-engaged in the region.

In Myanmar, the year saw the spectacular fall from saintly status of Burma’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi who failed to act as more than 620,000 Moslem Rohinga were driven by the army into neighbouring Bangladesh in what US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called ethic cleansing.

Latin America was not immune to despair. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro cemented his dictatorial grip on a nation facing four-digit hyperinflation, economic collapse and on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.

The drumbeat of cyber war intensified. Russia was accused of meddling in democracies, not least in the US presidential elections, as special counsel Robert Mueller probed possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

But glimmers of hope were emerging as the year ended.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela protégé Cyril Ramaphosa was elected leader of the ruling African National Congress, raising hopes that Jacob Zuma, with a reputation for alleged corruption, will be removed as president of the country.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who brought the African nation to the brink of collapse during his autocratic rule, was ousted by Emmerson Mnangagwa amid hopes for the country if he follows through on his promise of free and fair elections.

Trump boasted of his sexual assaults on women, brought unprecedented coarseness to the presidential election, yet ended up in the White House. It was ironic in the same year the #MeToo social media campaign exposed widespread harassment and brought the spectacular downfall of US film producer Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men.

Yet this month in Alabama, Republican Roy Moore, an evangelical accused of preying on teenage girls, was defeated in a senate election race in the staunchly GOP state that saw decency make a reappearance.

The world enters 2018 with a slew of challenges, not least closer to home where Brexit and Prime Minister Theresa May’s navigation of treacherous party and European politics will be a defining theme of the new year.