As per American socialist-cum- journalist John Reed’s gripping, minute-by-minute account of the Bolshevik-led October Revolution, the world’s first socialist state was birthed, and the final nail hammered on Tsarism’s coffin, in “10 days that shook the world”.
Ten years, therefore, is certainly long enough, if not to change the world of diplomacy then at least to introduce a set of new actors and fundamentally new challenges for inertia-bound foreign policy wonks to grapple with.
However, many of the actors and events that now dominate the global theatre looked far more innocuous 10 years ago. Take Imran Khan for instance—dismissed more as an ex-cricketer and fading playboy rather than a serious politician who could lead the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to any significant political outcome. So was Donald Trump. Identified more as a popular TV host and high-profile New York realtor, Trump was never even dreamt of as a future, maverick occupant of the White House.
But from those modest beginnings, a number of...
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