Last week it was Putin. This week it’s all of Europe. Ever since Donald Trump’s sit-down with the Russian president in Alaska, that icy stage for the grandmaster spectacle, leaders across the Atlantic have been lining up at his door.

Suddenly the same capitals that questioned his authority to negotiate on their behalf are outdoing each other to pucker up and secure favour before the next big move.

And poor Zelenskyy, always a pawn in these games, must be wondering what happened. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that Washington played him as the gambit on the European chessboard. He was hailed as a symbol of resistance, showered with weapons, promised unyielding support.

Now it’s the same White House that’s implicitly endorsing a Russian carve-up of Ukrainian territory. That’s the trouble with proxy wars. When the players switch seats, the proxies lose their place on the board.

But while that game plays out in Europe, another one is unfolding closer to home. This time it is India in the hot seat. And here too, Trump is using the same tools of coercion and spectacle. Only the stick is different. Enter America’s infamous exorbitant privilege. Just when talk of dedollarisation was gathering pace and headlines questioned the future of dollar dominance, that same privilege has come roaring back — not as........

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