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August 09, 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.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2016
Will Cuba's path lead to authoritarian capitalism?
To believe that the Obama-initiated rapprochement with Cuba would help to usher in open politics there amounts to learning no lesson from the mistake the U.S. made on China since President Richard Nixon's 1972 Beijing visit.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2016
Refugees, jihad and the specter of terrorism
The Mediterranean holds the key to Europe's security, yet little attention is being paid to shoring up the continent's southern flank.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2016
When drama undercut diplomacy
If the Modi government wants history to stop repeating itself, it must develop a credible counterterrorism strategy vis-a-vis Pakistan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2016
India yet again feels the wrath of terrorism
India's government has failed to develop a cohesive counterterrorism strategy and is hamstringing its military to a dangerous degree.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2016
Forge a united front to keep Chinese expansion in check
Only sustained pressure from China's neighbors can persuade Beijing that its future lies in cooperation, not confrontation.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2015
How not to combat terror
The U.S. must get Saudi Arabia to halt its sponsorship of radical Islam if it is going to successfully prosecute the war on terror.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2015
How alliances of convenience spur deadly terrorist attacks
Western powers must reconsider their regional strategies, which have long depended on allies of convenience ranging from despotic Islamist rulers, as in the Persian Gulf, to Islamist militias.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2015
China's freshwater grab
China is in the midst of a dam-building frenzy that will appropriate internationally shared water resources.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2015
The forgotten nuclear deal
Could the deal with Iran follow the trajectory of the deal with India: a great strategic move, followed by protracted negotiations on follow-up steps, moving goalposts, and the gradual diminution of the original accord?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2015
Saving Tibet's unique heritage
With China's mega-dams, mines and military activities in Tibet set to increasingly affect Asia's environment and security, the world's leading democracies must consider playing a discreet role to help save the Tibetan plateau's unique heritage from becoming extinct.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2015
China's Indian Ocean strategy
What are Chinese attack submarines doing in the Indian Ocean, far from China's maritime backyard?
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.
How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear
An Indian Air Force pilot gets out of a Rafale fighter jet during its induction ceremony at an air force station in Ambala, India, September 2020.
Trump: The $550 billion pledged by Japan is 'our money'
U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. He told CNBC that investment pledges are like signing bonuses.
The United States imposes 15% 'reciprocal' tariff on most Japanese goods
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Wednesday.
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.
Photographer Bleg Bayraktar is winning social media with politeness
A video on Bayraktar's Instagram account of the Belgian photographer approaching an elderly worker in Tokyo's Shibuya has gone viral, garnering almost 9 million views.
Cheer with caution: Expert advises sports fans have game plan for extreme heat
A Cardinals fan fans himself during the seventh inning of a game against the Pirates in St. Louis, Missouri, in June 2022.
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.
Will the movement seeking Ishiba’s resignation succeed?
Liberal Democratic Party youth division head Yasutaka Nakasone (center) and other members speak to reporters in Tokyo on July 25.
Photographer Bleg Bayraktar is winning social media with politeness
A video on Bayraktar's Instagram account of the Belgian photographer approaching an elderly worker in Tokyo's Shibuya has gone viral, garnering almost 9 million views.
Australia announces new warships will come from Japan
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami-class frigate Niyodo sails at an undisclosed location in this image released Tuesday.

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