Dr. Brahma Chellaney

In its centennial anniversary issue released today, @ForeignAffairs has a special review section, "Books for the Century." My book, Water: Asia's New Battleground, has been named as one of the six essential Asia-Pacific books published over the century. foreignaffairs.com/reviews/books-…

Since its founding in 1843, The Economist newsmagazine has often aligned itself with major Western military interventions — from the Crimean War (1853–56) and the Second Opium War (1856–60) to more recent U.S.-led wars. It was a staunch supporter of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, including parroting the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Against this backdrop, its more skeptical coverage of the current U.S.-Israeli war on Iran marks a notable departure from its traditionally pro-war journalism. This may leave The Wall Street Journal as one of the last major Western publications still strongly backing the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.

While Flights Stall, India Powers Ahead: War-driven jet fuel shortages have disrupted air travel across the Indo-Pacific, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and strand passengers. Yet India, despite its domestic cooking gas (LPG) crunch, remains comfortably positioned as one of the world’s leading exporters of jet fuel, formally known as Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF). The contrast is telling: India has become a global refining hub, importing crude while exporting high-value fuels such as diesel and ATF, ranking in each of the past two years as the world’s second-largest exporter of refined petroleum after the United States.

He is implicitly admitting the US committed unprovoked aggression against Iran just as Japan did by attacking the US at Pearl Harbour! And saying this with the Japanese PM by his side! No finesse at all. Brutally insensitive.

My column: Historically, communist parties that seized power did so through revolutions, coups or externally imposed regimes. Once in control, they typically banned opposition parties, making electoral defeat impossible. So, there are few precedents for communists’ electoral downfall. Nepal has just shown that communists can be democratically defeated at the ballot box. Voters swept aside the two main communist parties that had shaped Nepali politics for years, reducing them to minor players in parliament. The result represents a political earthquake. thehill.com/opinion/intern…

Modi’s call for de-escalation and renewed diplomacy is timely and necessary. Yet it raises a question: Why is this message being directed to leaders in the Gulf, Europe and Southeast Asia, but not to the principal actors who initiated the war and continue to drive the conflict? Today, Modi conveyed that message to Oman's ruler, the Malaysian prime minister and the French president. Earlier, he reached out to other foreign leaders.

In its latest Annual Threat Assessment, the U.S. intelligence community has placed Pakistan alongside China, Russia, North Korea and Iran (America's four main adversaries) as a missile and nuclear threat to the U.S. homeland. This represents the first instance of the U.S. intelligence community formally classifying Pakistan as a nuclear and missile threat to the homeland. When U.S. intelligence begins to treat a long-standing, if uneasy, partner as indistinguishable from America's principal adversaries, it signals a quiet crossing of a strategic Rubicon. The just-released 2026 Annual Threat Assessment states, "China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads, that can strike the Homeland." It further says, "In spite of the growing proliferation of one-way attack UAVs that perform missile-like functions, China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia will continue to prioritize advanced missiles that can threaten the U.S. However, their militaries almost certainly will plan to pair their high-end missiles with cheaper, expendable systems to stress U.S. missile defenses." It then adds, "Pakistan continues to develop increasingly sophisticated missile technology that provides its military the means to develop missile systems with the capability to strike targets beyond South Asia, and if these trends continue, ICBMs that would threaten the U.S."

For the record, the president of the United States is now simultaneously claiming that he has won the war, is currently winning the war, needs help to win the war, and needs no help to win the war. All to destroy the nuclear program he claims to have already destroyed last year.

This war with Iran was launched exactly the same way as the war with Iraq was launched: based on complete lies about the threat posed, lies which the people in charge of the intelligence knew were lies. That's why Tulsi under oath said Iran was not seeking nuclear weaspons:

So… they knew Joe Kent was leaking classified information, and they let him remain in his position with the highest security clearance in the country? They are going after this guy for speaking out.

Worlds most sophisticated gas processing plant, took 14 years to build Are we winning yet?

A Dangerous Double Game “The intelligence community assesses that Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan are researching and developing an array of novel, advanced and traditional missile delivery systems, with nuclear and conventional payloads, that put our homeland within reach.”—Tulsi Gabbard at today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Iran and Pakistan are immediate neighbors. Yet the U.S. is waging war on Iran while continuing to mollycoddle Pakistan, a designated “Major Non-NATO Ally.” By grouping Pakistan with America’s principal adversaries, Ms. Gabbard inadvertently exposes a glaring contradiction at the heart of U.S. policy. In fact, American policy is not just conflicted; it is strategically incoherent — arguably by geopolitical design.

Look at the list of names.

Americans largely oppose the war on Iran. But the war is very popular among Washington think tanks, who are flush with more than $44 million from weapons companies since 2019 and act as the war’s loudest cheerleaders across major media networks 🧵

Dozens of victims of the Pakistani attack on the rehab facility are being buried in a mass grave in Kabul. Many of the bodies r unrecognizable, having been severely disfigured. Others have taken back to their home provinces, while some remain in morgues awaiting identification.

I am a US citizen & Surgeon who took care of the Boston Maraton Bombing victims in 2013. I paid for 7 years to own a small apartment in downtown #Beirut for my 3 kids to enjoy summers there. Today, #Israel reduced my dream home to rubble, with american weapons, paid by my taxes.

While in de facto control of Venezuela and waging war against Iran, Trump is now tightening the noose around Cuba, precipitating a cascading humanitarian crisis — grid collapse, water shortages, hunger, failing hospitals and rising unrest. He has been explicit about the endgame: "taking Cuba." project-syndicate.org/commentary/xi-…

A Security Fiasco in India’s Northeast: The arrest of six Ukrainian nationals — all war veterans — and one American citizen with combat experience in the Syria and Libya conflicts by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) for providing military equipment and training to Chin rebels and other militants in Myanmar with ties to Indian insurgent groups casts an unflattering light on the security apparatus in India’s vulnerable northeast. ■ According to court filings, the seven accused mercenaries entered India on tourist visas and traveled undetected to the sensitive border state of Mizoram without obtaining the mandatory Restricted Area Permits (RAP). They then illegally crossed the unfenced international border into Myanmar’s Chin State. ■ The court filings state that, while in Myanmar, they provided training to Chin insurgents and other ethnic rebels with documented links to Indian militant organizations such as ULFA(I), NSCN and the Kuki National Army operating in the northeast. This training included: →Drone operations and assembly →Jamming technology and weapons handling →Supplying a “huge consignment” of drones sourced from Europe ■ The seven men subsequently re-entered India through the Mizoram-Myanmar border — again without detection by border or local police forces — before traveling deep into the Indian mainland. ■ They were eventually tracked by federal agencies and arrested on March 13 at transit hubs far from the Myanmar border while in the process of leaving India: →The American was detained at Kolkata airport →Three Ukrainians were arrested at Delhi airport →Three Ukrainians were arrested at Lucknow airport The NIA has charged them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), including Section 18 (terrorist conspiracy). The introduction of European-sourced drone technology and jamming expertise into this theater represents a significant “force multiplier” for insurgent groups. The investigation further indicates that the seven men were part of a broader conspiracy to transport sophisticated drones and other Western weapons into Myanmar via India, effectively establishing a “tactical corridor” through India’s northeastern borders. The scale of the security lapse is difficult to overstate. That these individuals were able to enter India, reach its northeast with military equipment, cross into Myanmar, and then return through the same route without detection points to a serious intelligence and border management failure. Their successful movement of a large consignment of drones and related supplies through Mizoram suggests that external provisioning of arms to Indian insurgent groups may be occurring more frequently — and more invisibly — than officially acknowledged. Taken together, these developments suggest that India’s northeast risks becoming a permissive operating environment for foreign actors fueling the Myanmar conflict, with spillover effects increasingly visible in Indian border states such as Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.