Everyone is feeling the turbulence in world affairs, with the change of guard at the White House making headlines. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has stopped funding crucial projects of utmost importance in developing countries. Aid through USAID is over, at least for the time being.

International diplomacy and politics are shifting as the new US administration takes the reins in the White House. Power politics is the order of the day. The recent Trump-Zelensky clash at the White House signals another shift in evolving international relations. The new wave of tariffs is shaping and reshaping international trade relations and alignments. The UN is in a state of quandary, searching for a direction to enforce peace in the world.

Human power has its own value system and charisma. The evolution of this value system is of great significance, as it has taken a long time to develop. However, the values in vogue today are under threat due to multiple factors. Democracy has been an evolving value system in which tolerance and patience to listen to opposing viewpoints hold prime importance. That, however, is eroding as the entire value system experiences turbulence. But the value chain is not limited to the democratisation of human values alone. It has been observed that the transactional approach, in fact, poses a great threat to the entire value system. At the top, democracy itself seems at risk of brinkmanship.

Western democracies have long led the developed world, with the US at the forefront. After World War II, America became one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global financial system, which evolved through international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), popularly known as the World Bank. The US rose to the status of an empire following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union (USSR) in 1990, earning the title of the world’s only ‘superpower’. The world became unipolar instead of bipolar. The American empire was built on a........

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