contributors

Melkulangara Bhadrakumar

Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat for three decades in the Indian Foreign Service, including twice in the former Soviet Union. He writes on India’s foreign policy and current affairs for various publications in India and abroad. He lives in Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram. He has a daily blog – indianpunchline.com.

all articles

June 16, 2022
India-Iran Reset Gets Under Way

The trend toward multipolarity in the world order made a quantum leap in the past one hundred days.

March 1, 2022
The EU Eyes New Horizons

Germany’s military build-up is a poignant issue in European politics, and what trajectory it will take once the dust settles, only time can tell.

February 23, 2022
Germany Can No Longer Be Put Down

Whichever way the U.S.-Russian tensions pan out — or, get protracted — Germany hopes to be the net winner.

February 14, 2022
Why QUAD Is Irreplaceable

QUAD provides an umbrella to huddle together behind closed doors and give vent to their grouse against China in hushed tone — a safety valve for pent-up frustrations.

February 8, 2022
Pakistan in the Eye of the Storm

New trends that have appeared in regional security since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan are highly consequential for regional politics.

August 2, 2019
A Second ‘Arab Revolt’ Is Overdue in Middle East

It must have come as a shocking reality-check for Saudi Arabi and the UAE that Trump who had a marvellous “war dance” with King Salman hardly two years ago in Riyadh and has locked in the two counties to the standoff with Iran, has lately switched attention to their bête noire, Qatar.

July 26, 2019
Modi’s Ship Hits the Kashmir Iceberg

India’s strategic ambivalence in the contemporary world order, characterised by growing multipolarity, is becoming increasingly untenable. Modi’s forthcoming visit to Russia in September and the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to India in October will provide significant pointers to the Indian policies in the changing regional and international milieu.

January 12, 2019
Is Trump Starting His Own War, Finally?

Chancelleries as far apart as Paris, Berlin and Moscow – and, most certainly, Ankara, Tel Aviv and Tehran – are sensing that a paradigm shift is under way.

December 4, 2018
Putin Initiates Trilateral Summit with India and China

The RIC dialogue mechanism is supposed to be an indispensable element of multilateral net diplomacy that can provide gravitas to the processes leading toward establishment of a fair world order.

November 29, 2018
Turkey’s Hour of Reckoning in Syria

The overall US strategy is to encircle Turkey and Iran and to control Baghdad and Damascus – and eventually to make Russian presence in Syria untenable.

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