NEW DELHI — Mao Zedong once famously called for the Chinese to "let a hundred flowers bloom." Soon, however, he was recoiling from what he saw as a chaos of competing ideas. Today, the world seems to be entering a period when, if not a hundred, at least a dozen varieties of Weltpolitik are being pursued by great and emerging powers alike. Reconciling these competing strategic visions of the world, in particular of global crisis, will make international diplomacy more complicated than ever.

The intervention by Turkey and Brazil into the globally divisive issue of Iran's nuclear program is but the latest, and also the clearest, sign of this new element in global affairs. In May, the Iranian, Turkish and Brazilian leaders met in Tehran to conclude an agreement that would supposedly have Iran deposit 1,200 kg of lightly enriched uranium (LEU) in Turkey, which, in exchange, would send 120 kg of enriched fuel to be used in Iran's research reactor.

Russia proposed this kind of swap earlier, but Iran declined the offer, and the version agreed with Brazil and Turkey was likewise intended to forestall Iran's ability to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU), which can be used for nuclear warheads. But its other intention was probably to stymie American efforts to adopt new United Nations sanctions on Iran.