India, May 10 -- We are living through a paradigm shift in the nature of warfare, not merely an evolution in tactics or technology, but a fundamental reordering of military power. Conflicts in Ukraine and Iran are evidence.

For centuries, the outcome of war was determined by a brutal fact: the side with the largest army, the most advanced weapons, and the deepest treasury usually won. Empires were built on this logic, and Superpowers were defined by it. The United States perfected it, spending trillions assembling the most lethal military force in human history, a force so overwhelming that the mere threat of its deployment was often enough to bend smaller nations to Washington's will.

That arithmetic no longer holds. A $500 drone has s...