As we bid adieu to the year 2023, we are witnessing a global order that has been fundamentally reconfigured - politically, economically and diplomatically. Trends that were simmering below the surface for the last few years have burst into the open, revealing in the all their complexities the challenges that are becoming difficult to manage by extant frameworks and institutions. There is an intellectual void at the very heart of international relations and it is being filled by the overuse of the term "disruption." Whatever the world can't seem to grapple with or come to terms with is being labelled "disruptive." Indeed, this is an inflection point but the underlying forces shaping it had been there with us for some time now.

The world is grappling with the fundamental transformations brought in by shifting power balance, technological overreach, and institutional decay. These underlying shifts have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and wars in Eurasia and the Middle East, resulting in global inflationary pressures, food and energy crises, and widespread economic downturn. Nations are frantically scraping their coffers to provide for their citizens' basic needs, and we are standing farther from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The post-COVID international landscape has been marred by increasing geo-political and geo-economic tensions. In the Indo-Pacific, the central theatre of global competition, several of these have culminated to present India with a series of challenging questions. These include navigating great power rivalry, conflicts, economic crises, deglobalisation, and adverse climate events, all against the backdrop of a weakening multilateral order.

© NDTV