Pace of Change in Global World Order Poised to Accelerate

President Trump is obsessed with trade deficits and tariffs and is taking steps in a manner that has upset most countries. In the process, Trump has upset decades-old partners and treaty allies.

- JAYADEVA RANADE

Major changes, which could potentially alter the current global configuration of power, have been afoot for over a decade. With Donald Trump becoming President of the United States and joining the two other assertive nationalist leaders, namely Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, on the global high table each with the agenda of making his country great again, the pace of change has accelerated.

Meanwhile, two of the world's most powerful nations, the US and China, after a sharp short-lived test of each other's resilience and strength, appear to be moving towards a compromise which could mellow fierce competition for the next few years. But as Beijing is only too aware, that will probably hold only till Trump is US President. For Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is time enough to become the world's mightiest power by 2049, and fulfill their promise to the Chinese people.