January 27 - Pray for: Asia

The unresolved conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. All international efforts to broker a viable peace deal have ultimately failed. There are deep differences between the claimants - on the land and on Jerusalem itself - with hawkish elements in both groups. While Israel continues to settle its people on occupied land and while Muslim nations refuse to recognize Israel's rights of existence and sovereignty, a peaceful resolution is highly unlikely. Factoring in antagonistic external players, without heavenly intervention, future war seems almost inevitable - the nations involved are all preparing for this possibility. Desperation, hatred and the fearsome arsenals of weapons would generate a terrifying toll on the region. Pray for all parties involved in the confrontation and for world leaders attempting to defuse the situation.

The Himalayas region simmers with tension. The conflict over Kashmir is the most intractable of problems, with Pakistan and India (and China) holding conflicting claims over territory. The Kashmir dispute has profoundly shaped Pakistan's domestic and foreign policies, has provoked an arms race between Pakistan and India and has already resulted in four wars. China and India are in dispute over territorial claims not just in Kashmir but also in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh. Strife also exists over India's hosting of the Tibetan government-in-exile and in Tibet itself. Add to this the Nepal Civil War of 1996-2006 (and continuing tensions), and you have a region filled with potential flashpoints.

Unrest in Southeast Asia is due to a combination of political and religious factors. The fault line in Thailand's regular political impasses point to the everpresent potential for more intense civil strife. Muslim unrest in the south of the country adds to the pressure. While Indonesia has stabilized somewhat, threats remain to its integrity even as Malaysia never seems far away from political upheaval. This arises from the complex interplay of weak democratic government, vested interests, rising Islamic extremism and ethnic resentments.

Deep mistrust, even hatred, persists between the Persian Shi'a Muslim and the Arab Sunni Muslim worlds. The seven-year Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, the manoeuvering after the Second Gulf War (2003), the manipulation of the Arab Spring protests in several nations, and the proxy wars in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are all recent chapters in the centuries-old conflict. Sunni-Shia violence extends to South Asia through murderous terrorist attacks. Iran's nuclear developments and increasing regional assertiveness - especially via the Shi'as in Iraq and Yemen - significantly affect this religious and political fault line.

The Golden Triangle (parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Yunnan), already notorious for insurgency, lawlessness, drug production and trafficking, has now added human trafficking to its list of evils.

The Korean Peninsula has remained one of the world's most dangerous flash points since the Korean War ceasefire of 1953. As North Korea gets ever more desperate to maintain an untenable system, the chance of collapse, crisis or even war increases. The deaths of millions by starvation and the North's nuclear ambitions make this a weighty and urgent issue. Pray for an end to the sufferings of North Koreans and for a wisely managed eventual reunification of Korea.

Afghanistan's travails seem unending. Twenty years after the USA/NATO unseated the Taliban and began an immensely costly ($2.3 trillion) nation-building exercise, Afghanistan seems to be back to square one. This troubled land has known only violence and war for so many decades. The current regime may bring peace in one sense, but in many ways Taliban rule is more oppressive and harmful than the seasons of conflict. Apart from those keen to exist under the thumb of the Taliban (of which there are many), Afghanistan's people seem as far from real progress as ever.

Yemen has descended into a nightmarish situation combining a civil war with religious overtones, foreign interference with a proxy war being fought between Sunni and Shia nations in Yemen, widespread destruction in an already impoverished land, and a huge humanitarian disaster. It would take a miracle to see Yemen become a united, stable, prosperous nation.