author

 
Menu
Search
 
September 23, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Brahma Chellaney

Meta

Twitter

@Chellaney

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
May 2, 2016
China's water hegemony
China's control of several international rivers, through its huge number of dams, gives it power over the nations downstream.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2016
Tackling the jihadi menace
By wielding only carrots and no stick, the West allows the double-talking Saudi royals to run with the foxes and hunt with the hounds — at grave cost to the security of many countries.
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.
40 years after Plaza Accord, Japan still at mercy of forex swings
The Plaza Hotel in New York, where finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Five countries met and struck the Plaza Accord on Sept. 22, 1985.
As Japan keeps buying gas, Aboriginal Australians pay the price
Paulina “Jedda” Puruntatameri with Antonia Burke and Tiwi fisher Clinton offshore of Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, in Australia's Northern Territory. Together with other Tiwi, Jedda has been campaigning for years to stop Australian company Santos and its backers, including Japanese investors, from drilling for natural gas at the Barossa gas field.
Abuse of 'zombie cigarettes' among Okinawa youths raises alarm
A street in Naha in August. In entertainment districts in southern Okinawa, a drug known as "laughing gas vape" is being abused at nightclubs and bar. Now, some establishments have put up warning notices.
More German companies choosing Japan as Asia manufacturing hub: survey
Japan has many positive qualities for German companies, but the market does face some challenges, such as talent acquisition and retention, particularly as demand for skilled workers grows, a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan showed.
Boom in business class travel from Japan fuels airlines profits
A business class suite of an Airbus SE A350-1000 aircraft operated by Japan Airlines is seen during a media preview at the company's hangar at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in January last year.
Who’s who in the LDP presidential race?
(From left) Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi; former foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi; Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi; former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi; and former minister of state for economic security Sanae Takaichi, speaking at events in Tokyo.
Behold the glory of Japan’s fruit boxes
Otherwise common sights in Japan's supermarkets, the country's fruit and veggie boxes can hide surprising symbols of local pride.
YouTuber Gigguk shifts from talking anime to making anime
The process of making “Baan” was personal and enlightening for Maneetapho, who spent years talking about anime on his YouTube channel and podcast before making the jump to becoming an anime creator himself.
How Yuki Joseph Nakajima turned failures into breakout success at Tokyo worlds
Yuki Joseph Nakajima after finishing sixth in the men's 400-meter final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Thursday.
Robot tour guides in Tokyo offer way for those with disabilities to work
Tours are being offered in Tokyo using a shoulder-mounted robot equipped with a camera, speaker and microphone. The robot twitches its wing-like arms, which it can fold together as if in prayer when visiting a temple.

Podcast

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

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan
By Christoph Sponsel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER