Liberal international relations work on the same game theoretical principles as any group interaction with a prisoner's dilemma-type payoff matrix. The optimal strategy for any individual is to betray, to not do work on the group project and still receive good grades, to fake your credentials on your CV and still get the job, to subsidize the murder of Ukrainians and still receive economic benefits and international sympathy.
Of course, if everyone refuses to work on the group project, you receive a failing grade. If everyone fakes their credentials, the company fails due to lack of expertise, if every country prioritizes their own interests over avoiding conflict, the world goes back to the pre-WWII era of rampant warfare, colonialism and exploitation. The optimal strategy for groups is to zealously persecute defectors.
This is the reason why this decision is much more relevant to India's future than you think. It's the reason why the West seems like a vindictive in-group that doesn't tolerate dissent. It's the same old mechanism that instructed the first multicellular organism to destroy cancerous cells. The mechanism that makes guppies instinctively reject their own conspecifics if they don't participate in the dangerous inspection of predators. The mechanism that drives our conceptions of justice, vengeance and shame.
