In a recent post, the two well-known US geopolitical analysts with somewhat different views, John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs, have come together with a persuasive hypothesis that governs the behaviour of powerful nations. Mearsheimer represents the realist school of international relations that holds that the international system is anarchic, with no central authority to enforce rules.

In our scriptures, this style of functioning is called ‘matsya nyaya’, the law of the fish. To achieve regional hegemony great powers are constantly engaged in a security competition, which can lead to conflict. Sachs, on the other hand, argues for multilateral cooperation. His approach is essentially a critique of realism; it is not difficult to appreciate that the recent coming together of India, China and Russia in the Tianjin SCO is seen as an acceptance of the new multipolar world and is more aligned to Sachs’ long held views on this matter.

Sachs and Mearsheimer have come together when they opine that the behaviour of nations, or shall we call them the new empires, in particular the US, China, India and Russia, will be governed by accepting one of two alternative principles: spheres of security and spheres of influence. In the former, a powerful nation seeks to intervene only if in the actions of its neighbours it sees its own security compromised. India’s behaviour in Doklam, Galwan and Sindoor exemplifies this line of thought as did the US behaviour in the Cuba missile crisis of 1962. The US Monroe Doctrine was an early example of this—a fledgling republic was telling a powerful Europe that if it did not meddle in the affairs of Mexico and South America, the US would not interfere in European matters. It was defining its sphere of security.

A century later Franklin Roosevelt, in a vastly more powerful US, reversed this position and the US arrived at its presently held position of developing its sphere of influence (or control). The US would interfere actively in the internal workings of a country, including initiating........

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