During past weeks, we debated American unilateralism and identified dominant trends likely to shape our world, in Op-eds titled, "Changing world and shifting geostrategic construct" and "International Trends – Extending the Argument" published in this space on December 25, 2025 and January 1, 2026, respectively. In a series of essays in The New York Times, titled "The World Is in Chaos. What Comes Next?", International Relations (IR) experts have discussed the following five aspects of the future, as they see it.

Adam Tooze talks about the energy politics coming into foreplay. Monica Duffy Toft talks about the world getting split into three spheres. Matias Spektor debates the rise of Global South as a defining trend. Rush Doshi talks about the receding US power against a resurgent China. And Margaret MacMillan predicts continued chaos in our future world.

In energy politics, the conversion of dreadnought battleships, from coal to oil fuel, ushered in the age of oil power, continuing to this day. Oil power makes USA, the largest global oil producer, the present hegemon. However, that dominance is challenged by a resurgent China, where continued industrial R&D by an army of scientists is helping undo western supremacy. China's unchallenged leadership in Green Energy is enhancing its state power and global influence.

Beijing, the giant fossil energy power, still relies on coal, but coal unlike oil, is not controlled by the US, so that puts in context, the noise about the US-inspired Venezuelan oil cuts impeding China's march forward. China is also converting industrial electricity from coal-fired to green energy, encouraging and subsidising private innovative investment in batteries and solar panels. Hence,........

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