India, April 8 -- This is the interim period between wars that were fought with humans and those that will be fought with machines. As we straddle the yesterday and tomorrow, the world is in the middle of a bloodless war between the old-world hegemon that is the US, and the contender for the crown that is China. As the US plays Russian roulette with China in an all-in trade war, the rest of the world waits for the winner to be announced so that it can realign its national interest, according to the new world order.

The incumbent power is bloated with debt and battered by a sharply torn population, a chunk of which does not have faith in the current leadership. America has advantages of its economic might, its military, its control of the...