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November 08, 2025
 

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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.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2017
Vladimir Putin's geopolitical chessboard
For Putin, the sanctions represent war by other means and a justification for him to make his next moves to countervail American power.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2017
China's imperial overreach
According to a Chinese proverb, 'To feed the ambition in your heart is like carrying a tiger under your arm.' The further Xi carries China's 'one belt, one road' initiative, the more likely it is to bite him.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2017
Money trumps anti-terror task
Donald Trump's embrace of a country he long excoriated for its role in sponsoring terrorism reflects the fact that Saudi Arabia is a cash cow for American defense, energy and manufacturing companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2017
Asia's American menace
The need for constant adjustment to Trump's policy flip-flops will only stoke greater anxiety among America's allies and partners, who now run the risk that their core interests will be used as bargaining chips.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2017
Trump's foreign policy muddle
In contrast to his tough campaign talk, there is little sign that Trump's China approach thus far is different to that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, on whose watch Beijing initiated coercive actions with impunity in the South and East China seas.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2017
Averting an accidental war on the Korean Peninsula
If the THAAD deployment in South Korea is not to prove counterproductive, Washington must shift to a policy of sanctions with engagement toward Pyongyang.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2017
Putin's dance with the Taliban
One of the Kremlin's latest geostrategic targets is Afghanistan, where the U.S. remains embroiled in the longest war in its history.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2017
A rising power without allies
The more power China has accumulated, the greater has been its difficulty in gaining genuine allies — underscoring that leadership demands more than brute might.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 27, 2017
Japan's Senkaku challenge
No group of islands poses a bigger challenge for Japan's security than the Senkakus.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2017
Trump's China challenge
So far, the Trump administration has shown that it is all bark and no bite when it comes to China.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2017
Obama: more war than peace
Obama has handed down to Trump more theaters of war than he inherited from Bush.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2017
China's free ride set to end once Trump is president
After relishing the Obama administration's unremitting obsequiousness toward it, Beijing must now brace up and face an assertive new U.S. team that is unlikely to put up with its covert territorial expansion and trade manipulation.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2016
Asia's fight over fresh water
Water is emerging as a key challenge for long-term Asian peace and stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2016
BRICS falls under China's sway
Just as China dominates the other new institutions of which it is a founding member — from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank — it is using BRICS to assertively push its own interests.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2016
China's sole ally in Asia might get more than it wished for
The implications of China's growing strategic penetration of Pakistan are ominous for the region and for Pakistan's own future.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 18, 2016
Why Japan and India must be partners in Myanmar
A Japan-India partnership on major projects in Myanmar can help reduce the salience of Chinese influence there.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2016
India's critical test on Pakistan
To halt Pakistan-aided terrorist attacks, India needs to employ 'silent war.'
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2016
Mirage of a rules-based order
As demonstrated by China's response to The Hague's South China Sea decision, international law is powerful against the powerless, but powerless against the powerful.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2016
China's 'might makes right' strategy vs. international law
Unless China is made to realize that its future lies in cooperation and not confrontation, a systemic risk to Asian stability and prosperity is bound to arise, with far-reaching implications for the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2016
Controlling Islamist terror
Unless concerted efforts are made to fight the ideology of jihad and drain the terrorism-breeding swamps, liberal, pluralistic states could come under siege.
The Toyota buyout is a major test for Japan’s reforms
Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor, speaks during a media preview at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Oct. 29. Minority investors are challenging the carmaker's bid to take affiliate Toyota Industries Corp. private.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
New satellite images suggest 'mass graves' in Sudan's El-Fasher
A general view of a berm construction in Kinin Village near El-Fasher.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.
SoftBank is said to have explored potential takeover of Marvell
SoftBank explored a potential takeover of U.S. chipmaker Marvell Technology earlier this year, in what would have been the semiconductor industry's largest-ever deal.
These are the hottest lower-division rikishi to watch right now
Fukazaki (right) grapples with Enho at the IG Arena in Nagoya on July 13.
Across borders and screens, Tokyo film festival finds humanity in migration
“Mother Bhumi” takes place in a multiethnic rice-farming community where Chinese, Thai and Malay lineages intertwine.
Takaichi’s balancing act: Supporting Taiwan and stabilizing China ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi shakes hands with Lin Hsin-i, Taiwan’s presidential adviser, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday in this image posted to Takaichi's official X account.
From 1973 to 2025: A Japanese American skater’s long ride to recognition
Judi Oyama at Winchester Skatepark in San Jose, California, in January 1979. The Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee and Guinness World Record holder still skates and hopes to inspire older women.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

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