This has been one of the most eventful years since I began covering global security for the BBC in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in 2001.

The sudden toppling of Syria’s President Assad, North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia. British and US missiles sent to Ukraine and fired at Russia, Iranian missiles shipped to Russia. US-armed Israeli air strikes in Lebanon and Gaza, Yemeni missiles fired at Israel.

It’s a complex and confusing web of conflicts and it prompts the inevitable question: Are the world’s battle lines becoming ever more interconnected?

Let’s get one thing straight: this is not World War Three, although President Putin does like to dangle that menace to scare the West away from sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine. But it’s clear that many of the conflicts on our planet have an international dimension, so how do these lines join up?

We can start with the war that has been raging in the east of Europe, across Ukraine since 24 February 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a failed bid to take over the whole country.