India and the Art of Strategic Balance

Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, in his book The Triangle of Power argues that the interplay between the Global West, the Global East and the Global South will shape the world to come. What he had not foreseen at the time when he wrote the book was the rapid unravelling of the Global West into two different entities: the United States and the rest of the historical West driven by their own security challenges and political goals. Exactly this – the unravelling of the collective West, the ensuing rupture, a falling out – was in full display at the recently concluded edition of the Raisina Dialogue. The framing of this year’s convening, Saṁskāra, Sanskrit for a civilisational tool, a statement of continuity that allows societies to assert their truth, accommodate their contradictions, and advance through refinement, proved to be a perfect framing as global leaders attempted to do a balancing act between Assertion, Accommodation and Advancement.