New Delhi, March 22 -- The international system is entering a phase that increasingly resembles an earlier era of geopolitics-one defined less by shared rules and more by competing spheres of influence. Signals emerging from Washington's strategic thinking, particularly during the presidency of Donald Trump, point to a worldview in which power, leverage and bilateral bargaining take precedence over the norms and institutions that have guided global governance for decades.

With the next Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approaching, the future of multilateralism is in the spotlight. Ministers from across the world will discuss the future of global trade rules at a time when the multilateral system is already und...