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By:

Rajiv Shah

22 September 2025 at 8:32:23 pm

New Alliances, New Pressures, New Fault Lines

To its west, old relationships in the Gulf are acquiring new strategic and military dimensions. Across the Atlantic, Washington is increasingly using tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy. At the same time, India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026 and prepares to host its summit when the grouping is being watched in the West as a potential challenge to the American-dominated global financial order. Individually, these developments may appear unrelated. Put together, they reveal a larger...

New Alliances, New Pressures, New Fault Lines

To its west, old relationships in the Gulf are acquiring new strategic and military dimensions. Across the Atlantic, Washington is increasingly using tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy. At the same time, India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026 and prepares to host its summit when the grouping is being watched in the West as a potential challenge to the American-dominated global financial order. Individually, these developments may appear unrelated. Put together, they reveal a larger geopolitical churn in which alliances, energy, trade, currencies and economic coercion are becoming interconnected. India finds itself almost at its centre. The emerging Saudi Arabia–Türkiye–Pakistan security equation deserves particular attention. Saudi Arabia brings enormous financial and energy influence; Türkiye possesses considerable military strength, NATO experience and an expanding defence industry; Pakistan brings a large military establishment and nuclear capability with the open support of Washington. Any arrangement containing a collective-defence commitment naturally acquires significance beyond ordinary diplomatic cooperation. Alongside it, another strategic convergence has gradually developed among India, Israel and the UAE. It would be incorrect to describe this as a formal military alliance. Yet geopolitics does not operate through defence treaties alone. India's extensive defence and technology relationship with Israel, its rapidly expanding economic and strategic partnership with the UAE, and the UAE-Israel relationship following the Abraham Accords have created considerable common ground. I2U2—bringing together India, Israel, the UAE and the United States—added another institutional dimension. Thus, without necessarily becoming opposing military camps, two interesting strategic formations are visible across West Asia: Saudi Arabia–Türkiye–Pakistan and the looser India–UAE–Israel convergence. Balancing Challenge India faces a similar balancing challenge. The Gulf is not a distant geopolitical theatre for New Delhi. Nearly nine million Indians live and work there. India's energy security, investments, trade and remittance flows are closely connected with the region. The proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor also requires relative stability across this geography. Polarisation in West Asia can therefore rapidly become an Indian economic and strategic problem. There is another question Indian planners cannot ignore. If a future India-Pakistan confrontation escalates, how would any collective-defence commitment involving Pakistan be interpreted by Saudi Arabia and Türkiye? It would be alarmist to assume that either country would automatically enter a conflict against India. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has substantial economic and strategic interests in maintaining good relations with New Delhi. Nevertheless, defence planners are paid to examine possibilities before they become crises. While these equations develop in India's neighbourhood, economic pressure is emerging from Washington. The US Senate has voted 86–11 for legislation intended to increase pressure on Russia by targeting major purchasers of Russian energy. The measure could authorise tariffs reaching 100 per cent against goods from countries continuing large-scale purchases of Russian oil and gas, with India among those potentially exposed. China is powerful enough to shrug off similar challenges from the West." However this does not mean that America has already imposed a 100 per cent tariff on India. Further legislative steps remain necessary, and presidential waiver provisions are important. But the overwhelming Senate vote carries a political message that New Delhi cannot dismiss. Tariffs are no longer merely tools of trade protection; they have become instruments of geopolitical coercion. Washington's argument is understandable: revenues from Russian petroleum help sustain Moscow's economy during the Ukraine war, and reducing those revenues increases pressure on Russia. But in that case what about European countries who too were/are customers of Russian oil? India's question is equally legitimate: who should determine where India purchases the energy required by more than 1.4 billion people? If Russian crude remains commercially advantageous and helps contain domestic energy costs, New Delhi cannot reasonably be expected to make every energy decision according to another country's geopolitical priorities. Strategic partnership cannot become strategic obedience. This is where BRICS enters the larger picture. India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026 and will host its leaders at an unusually sensitive moment. BRICS is no longer merely the original grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Its expansion has considerably increased its demographic, energy and geopolitical weight. More importantly, discussions around BRICS increasingly touch a sensitive nerve in Washington: alternative payment mechanisms, local-currency trade, development finance and the possibility of gradually reducing dependence upon the dollar-dominated international financial system. The BRICS Summit this time is poised to take some decisive steps which may affect western interests especially US. (The writer is an advocate, legal, geopolitical and public policy analyst. Views personal.)

Loud Is Not A Brand

He walked into the room with energy. Loud, enthusiastic, impossible to miss. Within minutes he had introduced himself to almost everyone — business owner, founder, investor, mentor, speaker, and three other things I lost count of. He had a story for every person, a pitch woven into every handshake, and an opinion ready before the other person had finished their sentence.


I watched from across the room. Not with judgment — with recognition. Because in working with founders and entrepreneurs on their personal brands, I have seen this person more times than I can count. Every single time, the tragedy is the same. He genuinely believes he is working the room. The room has already moved on.


Personal branding is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in business today. Most people assume it is about visibility — showing up, speaking up, being seen. And so they do exactly that. They show up everywhere, speak at every opportunity, and make certain they are seen. What they do not realise is that visibility without intention is just noise. And noise, no matter how loud, does not build a brand. It erodes one.


"Every interaction telegraphed the same thing: desperation dressed as enthusiasm."


The man I observed that evening was not unintelligent. He was not malicious. He was, by every external measure, accomplished. But his personal brand was silently working against everything he was trying to build. He leaned in too close during conversations — not just physically, but energetically. He gave before being asked, spoke before being invited, and pursued people who were clearly signalling they needed space. Every interaction telegraphed the same thing: desperation dressed as enthusiasm.


Here is what nobody tells founders at the peak of their journey — the skills that built your business are not the same skills that build your brand. Revenue, team size, years of experience — none of these automatically translate into a compelling personal presence. A brand is not what you say about yourself in a room. It is what the room says about you when you leave.


"The person others gravitate toward is rarely the loudest. It is the one who makes you feel most heard."


The most powerful personal brands belong to people who have mastered one thing — restraint. They speak less and are heard more. They share selectively and are remembered longer. They hold their space without filling every inch of it. In any room, the person others gravitate toward is rarely the loudest. It is the one who makes you feel most heard.


This is the inside-out work that transforms a professional presence into a personal brand. It begins not with a LinkedIn profile or a speaker bio, but with self-awareness — an honest audit of how you show up, how you make others feel, and what impression you leave behind. How you carry yourself. How close you stand. How well you listen. Whether your energy invites people in or quietly pushes them away.


The founder I observed told someone near me that he wanted to reach a point where people come to him — where he becomes the name everyone knows and the opportunities arrive without chasing. That desire is exactly right. But the path there is not paved with more talking, more pitching, more pursuing. It is built through the quiet, consistent, and deeply intentional work of becoming someone worth pursuing.


If you have ever left a networking event wondering why conversations felt forced, or why the follow-ups never came — the answer is rarely about who was in the room. It is almost always about the brand you brought into it.


Building that brand — from how you carry yourself, to how you communicate, to how you show up online — is the most important investment any serious entrepreneur can make today.


If this article made you pause, that pause is worth a conversation. Every week, I work with a small number of founders and entrepreneurs through a Founder Brand Audit — a focused, strategic session designed for people who are already successful but sense that their personal brand is not yet reflecting the leader they have become. This is not a general conversation. It is a precise diagnosis of the gap between where you are and how the world currently sees you — and a clear direction on what to close it. Four sessions are available each week. If you are ready to close that gap, book your audit here: https://calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit


(The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

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