SNI Editor-in-Chief Nitin Gokhale has returned from Beijing after reporting on the second Belt and Road Forum. In this conversation with Deputy Editor Parul Chandra and Associate Editor Amitabh P Revi, he examines the reasons for China being on the brink of letting JeM founder and Pulwama attack accused Masood Azhar be designated a global terrorist. He also looks back and forward at China’s Belt and Road Forum, India’s continued boycott and what it means for the world.
The post-Cold War order is fading, but the next world order has yet to emerge. As America, China, Europe, and Russia reposition for an uncertain future, old assumptions are collapsing. This is the story of borrowed power, strategic decline, rising rivals, and a world caught between eras.
When Trump flew to Beijing carrying an unwinnable war, rising fuel prices, and a closed strait he could not reopen alone, Xi gave him pageantry with a twist. Nothing was signed. Yet, perhaps everything was decided.
Xi Jinping enters the May summit having brokered a ceasefire Trump credited publicly, weaponized Taiwan's opposition for diplomatic cover, and — per US intelligence — quietly arming Iran through cutout channels. This is not three stories. It is one architecture.
Applying Graham Allison's Thucydides Trap to the 2026 Iran war. Blending asymmetric war economics, $3T market distortions, alliance fractures, and revealing the deeper US-China power struggle beneath the conflict.
Enthusiasts think BRICS is taking on the US-led West. Critics think it is just a weak wannabe. In reality, BRICS is undergirding the new global order that will bring together friends and foes alike. A Deep Analysis by Drishtikone.
Swami Dhirendra Shastri called for a meat-free Navratri in Bengal. Parties answered by invoking Shakta tradition. A restricted rite, stripped of its disciplines, has become “culture”, and Bengal uses its first taste of political freedom in decades to flaunt the very decay that helped undo it.
