A world in transition: US in retreat, China on the rise, Quad in a quandary

The ineptness of US presidents, combined with the cluelessness of Americans in foreign lands, contrasts with the Chinese leadership's focus on the accumulation of wealth and power, writes T N Ninan

Charles Kindleberger, an economic historian, argued that monetary stability needed a hegemon to set the rules. His “hegemonic stability theory” has subsequently been applied to a broader economic canvas and even beyond economics. It has been argued, for instance, that the instability of the period between the two World Wars was because Britain was in decline and an isolationist America not willing to step forward as the new global boss. Since then, Americans have told themselves and others that the rules-bound global order of the past 75 years was largely their creation. That view holds substantial truth, though it glosses