India, Jan. 22 -- The modern rules-based international order emerged from the wreckage of World War II. Designed by the victors and led by the US, its institutions - from the United Nations system to Bretton Woods - were shaped to preserve western strategic and economic primacy. Yet despite their self-serving elements, these arrangements helped maintain a degree of global stability, predictability and prosperity for nearly eight decades. That order is now under strain.

This was evident even at Davos, where US President Donald Trump - despite deep differences with most western allies - framed western power and prosperity as the product of a shared and "very special" culture, which he argued must be defended and strengthened. The emphasis ...