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 Brahma Chellaney

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Brahma Chellaney
Brahma Chellaney, a longstanding contributor to The Japan Times, is a geostrategist and the author of "Asian Juggernaut" (Harper, 2010) and "Water: Asia’s New Battlefield" (Georgetown University Press, 2011), which won the 2012 Bernard Schwartz Award. He is professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2004
Drawing the line with China
NEW DELHI -- India and China have held regular border-related negotiations since 1981 in the longest such process between two nations since the end of World War II. Yet, after 23 years of negotiations, the two Asian giants have not achieved the bare minimum -- a mutually defined line of control separating...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2004
'Kanazawa Process' pays off
KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Prefecture -- The "Kanazawa Process," a unique initiative sponsored by the United Nations for promoting peace and stability in Northeast Asia, is now celebrating its 10th anniversary. During the decade, this region and the wider world have been radically transformed.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2004
Gandhi a double winner
NEW DELHI -- The upset election result in India has come with an unparalleled spectacle of the winning alliance leader deciding, on second thoughts, to be the kingmaker rather than the king.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2004
Why India accepts a foreign-born leader
NEW DELHI -- The world's largest-ever election in India has produced the biggest upset, bringing to power a foreign-born woman leader, Sonia Gandhi, and radically transforming Indian politics.
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2004
Democratic model for developing nations
NEW DELHI -- At a time when international terrorism has intensified debate on the potential role of democracy in moderating extremist trends, the world's largest-ever election in India is a reminder that democracy and freedom are not luxuries but central to the building of stable, pluralistic and prospering...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2004
Bush's blinkered nonproliferation policy
NEW DELHI -- Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) have emerged as the two most pressing issues in international relations. Since 9/11, the United States has used the two to advance its strategic interests, linking them to reinforce international concerns about a terror-WMD nexus. This has...
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2004
Put global war on terror back on track
NEW DELHI -- One year after the invasion of Iraq, the U.S.-led global war on terror stands derailed, even as the scourge of terrorism has spread to more nations. The U.S. occupation of Iraq has proved divisive in international relations, splitting the world and fracturing the post-9/11 global consensus...
COMMENTARY
Sep 13, 2003
Get war on terror on track
NEW DELHI -- Violence-extolling Islamists target the United States, Israel and India as their principal enemies. Yet these three democracies are no more secure against terrorism today than before U.S. President George W. Bush launched his global war on terror. In fact, terror at home compelled Ariel...
COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2003
Vajpayee kowtows to China
NEW DELHI -- Seeking to placate longtime rival China, India has subtly shifted its stand on Tibet in a way to clearly recognize the Chinese annexation of "the roof of the world," delighting Beijing but raising questions about New Delhi's diplomatic game-plan and spurring concern among Tibetan exiles....
COMMENTARY
Jun 28, 2003
Appeasers selling India short
NEW DELHI -- Belgian scholar Pierre Ryckmans coined the phrase the "100 percenters" to describe Beijing's international fans who support whatever China says 100 percent. Publishing under the pen name Simon Leys, Ryckmans compiled the statements of these toadies in defense of Chinese actions, including...
COMMENTARY
Apr 27, 2003
Bush faces long-term burden of triumph
NEW DELHI -- Aggression pays, and naked aggression pays handsomely. That may sound like the moral of America's occupation of Iraq after a faster-than-anticipated military triumph that threatens to herald a more muscular U.S. foreign policy. That moral may be reinforced by the way the Bush administration...
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2003
9/11 gave life to U.S. imperial ambitions
NEW DELHI -- As U.S. President George W. Bush readies a war on Iraq without any direct provocation, the United States faces international opprobrium and isolation. Rarely before has the U.S. risked its future international role and image on a huge strategic gamble untied to the protection of its vital...
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2002
Sino-Indian war still haunts New Delhi
NEW DELHI -- Forty years after China humbled India in a two-front Himalayan war masterminded by Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the lessons of that crushing defeat still reverberate in New Delhi. The war was Mao's attempt to demolish India as an alternative democratic model and geopolitical rival to communist...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002
In pursuit of terrorists and oil
NEW DELHI -- U.S. President George W. Bush is taking a big gamble with his single-minded mission to get rid of a toothless but unsavory dictator, who, far from being a menace to U.S. security, is not a threat even to his neighbors. Bush, who accuses Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein of being "a homicidal...
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2002
George W. Bush's two-faced foreign policy
NEW DELHI -- Which country poses a serious threat because of its established links with international terrorism, proven program to develop weapons of mass destruction and close ties with other dictatorships in WMD-related matters? To a resident of New Delhi, the answer may be obvious: Pakistan, bristling...
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2002
U.S. may manage Kashmir row at best
NEW DELHI -- Every regional crisis seems like an opportunity for U.S. policy to advance its interests. This has come out starkly since 9/11, as Washington has gone about extending its influence and building long-term strategic arrangements with nations across Asia, from the Caspian region to the South...
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2002
Eliminate Pakistan's ability to commit nuclear blackmail
NEW DELHI -- With the issue of terrorism threatening to spark an open military confrontation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, U.S. President George W. Bush is rushing his defense secretary to the subcontinent in a last-ditch effort to persuade Islamabad to sever its links with terror groups....
COMMENTARY
Mar 28, 2002
New focus on security pushes nuclear deterrence to the fore
NEW DELHI -- In the post-Sept. 11 environment, nuclear-weapons issues had acquired a lower profile in international relations as the controversy generated by America's missile-defense plans, the ongoing deadlock at the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament and the coma-like state of the Comprehensive...
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2002
Judge Beijing by its deeds
NEW DELHI -- At a time of growing U.S.-Indian strategic engagement, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's unusually conciliatory tone during his visit to India last week reflected his country's desire to decelerate that process by emphasizing areas of potential Sino-Indian cooperation. China is suddenly signaling...
COMMENTARY
Jan 8, 2002
India set to keep full press on Pakistan
NEW DELHI -- The biggest question now is whether war will break out between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Although no right-minded citizen in either country wants war, many forget that Pakistan has thrust an undeclared war on India for years, bleeding India noticeably. Thus the aim is not...

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