Dr. Brahma Chellaney

In its centennial anniversary issue released today, @ForeignAffairs has a special review section, "Books for the Century." My book, Water: Asia's New Battleground, has been named as one of the six essential Asia-Pacific books published over the century. foreignaffairs.com/reviews/books-…

Trump "approaches diplomacy as a grand performance: issue threats, dangle inducements, set a deadline and, at the point of maximum leverage, make the best possible deal ... Trump’s process entails the application of power, not rules."—@stephenwertheim nytimes.com/2025/07/22/opi…

The U.S. embrace of Syria's self-declared president — a former jihadist warlord — and the Western normalization of his regime have brought only massacres of minorities: Alawites, Druze, and Kurds. A leopard doesn't change its spots. wsj.com/opinion/syria-…

WSJ has some specific figures on how US/Israeli interceptors performed against Iran. Upshot: if the war had continued, Israel's air defenses would have reached a critical point--one that could have pushed Israeli leaders into more intensive escalatory options.

From bombing Iran to ordering yesterday’s anti-ISIS military raid in Syria, Trump has shown little hesitation in using military force. The raid underscores how the U.S. continues to play the “good terrorist versus bad terrorist” game — targeting ISIS while aligning with a Syrian…

U.S. government-funded non-governmental organizations like Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) describe themselves as “independent nonprofits.” However, the appointment of a senior State Department official as USIP’s…

The U.S. partnership with Pakistan in "countering terrorism" is one reason the global war on terror has gone off course. Pakistan — a major state sponsor of terror and a hub for UN- and US-designated terrorist groups and individuals — has long served as an epicenter of terrorism.

By committing to invest $550 billion in U.S. infrastructure projects selected by the White House, Japan will in effect help create a virtual US sovereign wealth fund. The real shocker: The U.S. would keep 90% of the profits from these Japanese investments. wsj.com/politics/polic…

India, with a domestically driven economy, relies on domestic consumption, not exports, for growth. Its commerce minister said in 2024 that existing FTAs were "hurting" domestic industry. Yet, India has now signed another FTA — handing Britain its biggest trade deal since Brexit.

In sharp contrast to the India-Pakistan conflict, which revolves around cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, the Thai-Cambodian border conflict centers largely on the ownership and control of ancient Khmer Hindu temples, with the 11th–12th century Preah Vihear temple as the most…

The global silence over the mass starvation in Gaza underscores a grave failure of moral imperative and collective responsibility, with geopolitical interests eclipsing urgent humanitarian needs. It reflects a disturbing desensitization to large-scale human suffering — made all…

Secretary Lutnick on the Japan-USA economic deal: "You want to build nuclear facilities, build it, pipelines, fabs, whatever you think is necessary, Japan will pay for it. It's a blockbuster deal if there ever was one."

Like China, India has dispatched an emergency medical team of burn specialists to Bangladesh to help treat victims of the Chinese-supplied trainer aircraft crash at a Dhaka college. But why has India remained silent on the continued incarceration — since last November — of the…

Bangladesh's Yunus regime has freed terrorists while jailing the monk who led large, peaceful protests against Islamist attacks on the long-persecuted Hindu minority — effectively crushing such protests. The ailing monk has been in prison since November. thedailystar.net/news/banglades…

The renewed Thai-Cambodian border conflict — highlighted by Thailand's airstrikes — not only strains ASEAN unity and credibility but also threatens to divert attention and resources from more pressing regional challenges, especially China’s growing assertiveness in the South…

Nothing better illustrates the fecklessness of India’s China policy than its silence in response to Beijing’s July 19 admission that the largest dam ever conceived in human history is being built just miles from the Indian border. Had the roles been reversed, China would have…

🧵 New evidence has emerged of the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history. Per President @realDonaldTrump's directive, I have declassified a @HouseIntel oversight majority staff report that exposes how the Obama Administration…

Bombing Iran wasn't the first time Trump used force in his second term. Yet he pretends to be a peacemaker. Contrary to his claim, his administration didn't broker Congo-Rwanda peace accord. But he reiterates that he weaponized trade to force India's hand.

Hunter Biden just went off on the Democratic Party: "Fuck him and everybody around him... George Clooney is not a fucking an actor. He's a brand." "James Carville hasn't won a race in 40 fucking years." "David Axelrod had one success in his political life and that was Barack…