New Delhi, April 14 -- Where is the world heading? It's the question asked by many. The ongoing trade war, and 'Trump Tariffs' - a part of Make America Great Again (MAGA), has all the trappings of a 'great economic recession', having worldwide impact. In the battleground of global trade, Donald Trump didn't just impose tariffs-he advanced a mindset. Maybe borrowed from game theory.

Let's unpack it further. The idea was simple: it looks like a zero-sum game. For instance, if America wins, then someone has to lose. In all probability, the aim is to put China and the rest of the world in a Catch-22 situation-and they must lose. As the sum here is zero, there is no mutual benefit, nor shared prosperity. Then what's the logic of tariffs?

One...