Trump, Tariffs, and the Rewiring of the American Empire

On August 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India travelled to Tianjin, a city in eastern China, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. His presence there, after five years of simmering India–China tensions, was widely read as signaling the possibility of a global geopolitical realignment. Modi’s visit came in the wake of the United States imposing 25% tariffs on India, along with additional punitive duties linked to India’s continued purchase of Russian oil. China, for its part...