Srinagar, July 13 -- For the first time since 1945, the world finds itself without a single dominant superpower-or even a stable pair of rivals. Instead, we are entering a volatile phase of fragmented multipolarity, where competing power centers and diverging visions of global order create not balance, but deep instability.

As Mark Leonard rightly notes, "Beijing and Washington do not enjoy the same global dominance that the Soviet Union and the United States did after 1945." In 1950, the U.S. and its allies-NATO members, Australia, and Japan-alongside the communist bloc led by the USSR, China, and Eastern Europe, accounted for a staggering 88 percent of global GDP. Today, that share has fallen to just 57 percent. Not only has economic p...