The air inside the ballroom of The Imperial New Delhi carried the faint scent of polished mahogany and cold tea when the room fell abruptly silent. Outside, the October heat pressed hard against the capital’s tree-lined avenues, but inside the private salon, nearly one hundred intelligence chiefs, strategic planners, and foreign ministers sat in defensive stillness. At the center table, Wolfgang Ischinger, the seasoned architect of the Munich Security Conference, shifted his briefing documents as the room’s microphones activated.