Partisan pragmatism

  The opening chapter deals with the idea of power, and how money plays a central role in determining who controls the world. The author argues how the West’s pre-eminence, be it the European colonial powers of yore or the US juggernaut post-World War II, is based on lofty but hollow claims of morality: it is all about managing the narrative. He then lays bare how American businesses since the Gilded Age have used their wealth to determine the arc of history (which, unlike what Martin Luther King  Jr believed, does not necessarily bend towards justice). 

Be it the likes of “robber barons” such as John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie during the Gilded Age, the “Horsemen” of banking and oil (a list that includes the Rothschild family, J P Morgan, and companies such as ExxonMobil and British Petroleum, among others), or modern corporations such as BlackRock and Vanguard, the author contends that they have all attempted to fundamentally reshape global finance with one objective: to multiply their own profits. The collateral damage? Numerous wars waged, democratically elected regimes overturned, and millions killed — all at the altar of furthering US interests.

  The next chapter, dedicated primarily to the covert (and overt) operations of the US’ Central Intelligence Agency, is a surprisingly short one given the author’s background in spycraft. He posits that the US used nonprofits such as the National Endowment for Democracy and the USAID, both initially established during the Cold War to counter communist influence, to destabilise governments it deemed unfriendly while pretending to be the “good guys”.

  One chapter, aptly titled Philanthropy for Profit, dedicates significant space to examining the somewhat dodgy side of the tech billionaire and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. He traces Gates’ brand of “philanthrocapitalism” to the likes of Rockefeller and Carnegie, both of whom engaged in some form of wealth redistribution towards the fag end of their lives after spending years epitomising ruthless capitalism. But, as Sood rightly points out, there is a marked difference in their modus operandi: while the philanthropy of the 19th-century elites was not an instrument for earning more wealth, the new-age billionaires look upon this as a means “both for creating wealth and acquiring control”. The author then goes on to extensively list Gates’ alleged misdemeanours, such as exercising control over the supply chain of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, or orchestrating the dismantling of Africa’s traditional farming systems, only for agricultural behemoths to step in. 

The chapter on the US’ decline comes across as a counterargument to the proponents of American exceptionalism: that the American people were the “chosen” ones, primed to take on the mantle of global leadership. Sood looks at the Cold War’s long shadow and highlights the dark episodes of the US’ interventionist history with aplomb. In its quest for a new world order following the fall of the Soviet Union, the US got entangled in “forever wars” that yielded mixed results for its security interests but further enriched its already sprawling defence-industrial complex.

  All this has meant that other major conundrums — climate crisis-induced threats; endless turmoil in parts of Europe, West Asia, and Africa; China’s rise as a superpower — do not get the same attention they ought to from it. Add to this the unpredictability induced by US President Donald Trump’s actions and words, and one is staring at the possibility of an unprecedented global upheaval.

  A few chapters are dedicated to the challenges posed by Russia and China to the US’ dominance. For the current situation in Ukraine, Sood squarely lays the blame on the expansion of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization in parts of Eastern Europe (once the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence) and especially Georgia and Ukraine, terming it a provocation that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have never taken lying down. He also criticises the US’ tendency to overestimate its own abilities while underestimating its adversary’s, which explains Russia’s gains in an attritional war.

  Coming to China, the author shows how — like in the case of Russia — the US’ inability (or downright refusal) to understand how the Chinese political system (that is, the Communist Party of China) led to the misplaced hope that free market capitalism would introduce democracy and liberalism. But China used the tools of American technology and soft power to its advantage, and Trump’s mention of the idea of a “G2” last year only confirmed China’s global stature. “Hide your strength, bide your time” is what former Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping famously said, and this is what played out on the global stage: a rising power induced complacency in the old hegemon until the right moment to strike arrived.

  The final two chapters focus on India’s challenges in a volatile geopolitical landscape and how it must be pragmatic in finding its place therein. While the threat posed by the usual suspects (Pakistan and China) is nothing new, it is when Sood turns his gaze inward that the book drops its veneer of objectivity altogether. Be it blaming Western media narratives for attempting to destabilise the current government in power or effectively branding those protesting against megaprojects (such as the Sardar Sarovar Dam) or against controversial legislation (the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019) as fifth columnists, Sood comes across as partisan. By choosing not to exercise any of the critical thinking that pervades the previous chapters and exhibiting a willingness to believe state-backed narratives, the author does a great disservice to his own work.

  One specific point regarding the choice of sources: there are ample grounds on which Bill Gates could be criticised, but quoting a vaccine denier (the author mentions Robert F Kennedy Jr, now US Secretary of Health) does not exactly lend credibility. Also, publishers ought to reconsider a practice they are increasingly adopting to save on printing costs: omitting the endnotes section and putting a QR code instead that redirects the reader to a PDF document. Its mere presence does wonders for transparency and indicates that the author is willing to subject their argument to scrutiny.

  Despite its shortcomings, Vikram Sood’s Great Power Games makes for interesting reading for students of India’s foreign policy and geostrategy. For India, the message is clear: it must seek its place at the table on its own even as the two superpowers battle it out for global supremacy, for (to quote Carl Sagan) “there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere”.

(The book is has 336 pages and is priced at ₹899. The next book that the Blueprint will feature: Warhead by Nicholas Wright)