*“There is no finer teacher of war than war,” said Mao and as the Ukraine-Russia war nears the end of three weeks, it is time one takes stock of India’s position in the real world of geopolitics.
In the real world, ‘power’ talks — as Greek historian Thucydides wrote in the Fifth Century BC, “Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power — while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” The dogged resistance of Ukraine notwithstanding, ‘power’ has spoken through Russian actions, with Russian President Vladimir Putin demanding that all Russian demands be met, including a call to surrender. This leads to two fundamental deductions at the macro-level.
