History doesn’t end today, our old compass has run its course. Here’s a new one for India

History doesn’t end today, our old compass has run its course. Here’s a new one for India

The article argues that history did not end with the post–Cold War order, and that the world has decisively moved into an era of fragmentation, uncertainty, and strategic flux. The old compass of global governance—multilateralism, stable trade rules, and a trusted rules-based order—has run its course. Today’s world is marked by fractured supply chains, politicised finance, geopolitical conflicts, weakened multilateral institutions, and the slow erosion of the post-1991 order through “a thousand cuts.”

Amid rising tariffs, de-dollarisation efforts, wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, climate shocks, and fiscal stress in advanced economies, India has pursued a calibrated, interest-based foreign policy. It has promoted FTAs, rupee trade settlement with over 22 countries, reduced exposure to U.S. Treasuries, advocated peace diplomacy, accelerated its green transition, and emerged as a leading voice of the Global South.