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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 / World
Jun 2, 2015
Beijing's bendable principles
Just as China plays all its cards against India and rears even new ones, India must shed its reticence and do likewise to build countervailing leverage.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2015
Obama's lesson in how to not make peace in Afghanistan
U.S. President Barack Obama's faltering strategy to win over the Taliban serves as a cautionary tale of how not to make peace with an enemy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2015
Pakistan key to the advance of China's global interests
Besides serving as the linchpin of China's India-containment strategy, Pakistan is now its launch pad for playing a bigger role in the Indian Ocean and Mideast.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2015
The silk glove for China's iron fist
China is trying to disguise its South Asia 'string of pearls' encirclement strategy with claims that it wants to create a 21st-century maritime Silk Road to improve trade and cultural exchange.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 20, 2015
Japan's constitutional millstone
If there is one factor that could help the Abe administration overcome the constitutional millstone against modernizing Japan's military defense, it would be Obama administration support. Japan is the only power that can block China from gaining ascendancy in the region.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2015
The U.S.-India nuclear breakthrough that wasn't
Nuclear power faces an uncertain future, with few new reactors under construction in the West. Yet India has continued to place the nuclear deal at the hub of its relationship with America.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 28, 2015
Japan-South Korea relations remain hostage to history
Japan and South Korea face a stark choice: to find ways to settle their disputes over history or stay locked in a frozen political relationship that plays into China's hands.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2015
Reshaping India's diplomacy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shaken up the foreign policy establishment with his readiness to break with conventional methods and shibboleths, yet he appears to have no intent of encunciating a Modi doctrine in foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2014
Tibet core to Sino-Indian ties
Tibet historically was the buffer that separated the Chinese and Indian civilizations. Ever since Communist China, in one of its first acts, gobbled up that buffer with India, Tibet has remained the core matter with India.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2014
Nuclear power's dark future
Nuclear power constitutes the world's most subsidized energy industry yet it faces an increasingly uncertain future.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2014
Friendly backer of jihadists
Tiny Qatar, the world's richest country in per capita terms, has leveraged its natural gas wealth to emerge as a leading backer of Islamist causes.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2014
Pakistan's internal dynamics keep a lasting peace with India at bay
Every time a Pakistani leader has moved to build better ties with India, Pakistan's politically strong military has masterminded a cross-border attack or terrorist strike. India is signaling that its response to Pakistan's military strategy will no longer be survival by a thousand bandages.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2014
A serial intervener, after all
In launching his presidency's seventh bombing campaign, Barack Obama has shown himself to be one of the most militarily aggressive U.S. presidents since World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2014
China's border belligerence
It appears that the central objective of Chinese leaders' visits to India over the years has been to reinforce China's territorial claims. Beijing is at it again.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2014
Co-opt the water hegemon
The vast majority of the 57 transnational river basins in continental Asia have no water-sharing arrangement or any other cooperative mechanism — a troubling reality amid the already strained political relations in several Asian sub-regions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 2, 2014
Asia's best friends shape an axis
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watershed visit to Japan, and the bear-hug welcome from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have added concrete content to a relationship embodying Asia's emerging democratic axis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014
The spawning of Islamic State
It took just two years for Syria to descend into a Somalia-style failed state under the weight of the international jihad against Bashar Assad. This helped the Islamic State not only to flourish but also to use its control over northeastern Syria to stage a surprise blitzkrieg deep into Iraq this summer.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2014
Deadly geopolitical games
The destabilization of Ukraine, Syria and Libya is a result of the geopolitical games that big powers continue to play when they target specific regimes. This destabilization in turn contributes to the rise of dangerous extremists and terrorists.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2014
Narendra Modi: India's Shinzo Abe
Just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's return to power in late 2012 reflected Japan's determination to reinvent itself as a more competitive and confident country, Narendra Modi's election victory reflects Indians' desire for a dynamic, assertive leader to help revitalize their country's economy and security.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014
Alarm bells ringing in Asia
The deteriorating situation in Ukraine and rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. threaten to bury President Barack Obama's floundering 'pivot' toward Asia.

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