New Delhi, Feb. 18 -- Game theorist Thomas Schelling once wrote that coercion depends more on "the threat of what is yet to come than on damage already done." He added that countries in conflict situations would want "an impressive unspent capacity for damage be kept in reserve." Schelling wrote his classic works on strategy in the context of the Cold War between the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union, two superpowers with massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

His words should resonate again as US President Donald Trump opens his second innings at the White House with threats of tariffs against countries that he believes are harming the economic interests of his country. The way Trump suspended broader tariff hikes on imports ...