India, Dec. 25 -- For decades, the global economy functioned because countries accepted one basic principle: rules could be contested but not casually ignored. Whether in trade, finance, climate or technology, the world relied on a predictable procedural grammar. It allowed large and small states to navigate disagreements without fearing sudden reversals. That quiet architecture of discipline is now steadily weakening, and with it the foundations of global economic cooperation.

The signs are everywhere. Governments today behave as if the guardrails that once constrained diplomatic behaviour have loosened. It is not simply a question of great-power rivalry or supply-chain anxieties. The deeper shift is that processes once treated as invio...