New Delhi, Dec. 24 -- There was a time when geopolitics wore a suit. In 2025, it showed up in fatigues, spreadsheets and executive orders.

From missile strikes in West Asia and South Asia to tariffs deployed with the bluntness of sanctions, this was the year global politics stopped performing diplomacy and started practising power. Not theatrically. Not apologetically. Just plainly.

What emerged was not collapse, nor chaos, but something colder and more durable: a world that accepted friction as normal, instability as manageable, and rules as optional.

The age of restraint did not end with a bang. It simply stopped being useful.

The language of international affairs changed in 2025. Gone were the euphemisms of "strategic patience" and...