Great Power Games: From Western Decline to Eastern Ascent

Great Power Games is an authoritative account of the world order in flux, from the ashes of the Second World War to the fractured present. For decades, the United States and its Western allies shaped the global system through treaties, institutions and a carefully constructed rules-based order. That edifice now shows deep cracks. Hot wars rage on multiple fronts, the West is riven by internal turmoil and America, under the disruptive presidency of Donald Trump, has abandoned the very frameworks it once created. In this gripping narrative, Vikram Sood, former chief of the R&AW, reveals how nations pursue power. Behind the handshakes and communiqués lie covert operations, espionage, proxy wars, disinformation campaigns and economic coercion. From the Cold War’s shadow battles to the unipolar arrogance of post-Soviet America, he charts how the West rose, and how it is now faltering. He traces how the Cold War divided the world into camps, how the Soviet Union fell, how America reigned in unipolar arrogance, and how a new balance of power is now emerging. As China asserts itself with economic and military might and India positions itself as a pivotal actor, the old powers – the United States and Russia – remain locked in dangerous contests of ambition. The result is a volatile multipolar world where the rules are being rewritten in real time. Incisive, unsettling and panoramic in scope, Great Power Games is both a history of global geopolitics and a warning about the turbulent future we are entering.