Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Last week was an ordinary one made extraordinary by new readings of power tilts both at home and globally.
In India, the ruling party’s sweep of Maharashtra’s state polls took apart the post Lok Sabha-election reading that it was past its peak popularity in major states. The Bharatiya Janata Party dominates India’s second most populous state like never before.
Internationally, the arms race for nuclear deterrence saw Russia test a new hypersonic missile against Ukraine as a warning shot across US-led West’s bow. Despite the advance notice Moscow gave the US, it wasn’t intercepted, so it counts as a win for the anti-US bloc in global perception.
In recent times, the US claim to world leadership has taken blows from its abandonment of free trade, flip-flops on climate change and apparent indifference to globally agreed rules of war. America’s need for all-round military supremacy may push it to upgrade its own missiles, but what it does in the world’s collective interest will probably matter more in the long run.
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