New Delhi, Dec. 16 -- The new National Security Strategy of the US seeks "strategic stability" with Russia. It declares that China is merely a competitor, that the Middle East is not central to American security, that Latin America is "our hemisphere" and that Europe faces "civilizational erasure." India barely rates a mention; one might say, as Neville Chamberlain did of Czechoslovakia in 1938, that it's "a faraway country... of which we know nothing." Well, so much the better for India, which can take care of itself.

The realpolitik of this document is breathtaking, yet the underlying logic is not stated. It is a logic of resources. With oil flowing thick and fast from Texas and reserves in Canada and Venezuela, the US can exit the Gul...