Trump World

It rained a little on the inaugural ceremony of President Donald Trump on January 20. An inauguration like no other, the mood was dark, suffused by anger-on-a-leash, but anger nonetheless. The newly anointed leader-of-the-free world's speech was combative, unsmiling, almost war-painted. His words were a call to arms: making America great again will involve a show of muscle, no speaking softly, and yes, carrying a big stick.

If there was a takeaway from the address for that agglomeration of continents called the rest of the world, it was 'brace, brace, brace!' This is going to be a roller-coaster ride, in a world dictated to by an absence of strategy, by the here and now, as Robert Zoellick said recently. And India! The partnership between India and the US is the legacy of the Bush and Obama years. Will it endure and flourish?