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Sreeram Chaulia

Articles by Sreeram Chaulia

Academia vs Trump is a high stakes ideology war

The administration is seeking to weaponise grants and funds to force universities to align with its thinking

Harvard, the richest university on earth with its own independent endowment of more than $50 billion, might resist in spite of the sudden loss of $2.2 billion in federal grants, but not every US university can afford to lose government funds (REUTERS)

Opinion

Published on Apr 16, 2025 07:45 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Strategic flexibility is the lodestar for India’s US policy

New Delhi went into the bargaining game with an eye on mutual benefits and expanding the pie rather than dividing a fixed pie — and it has worked

**EDS: THIRD PARTY IMAGE** In this image released by PMO on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump during a joint press conference at the White House, in Washington, DC, USA. (PMO via PTI Photo) (PTI02_14_2025_000065A) (PMO)

Opinion

Published on Feb 14, 2025 09:31 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

The US deep state and its discontents

The idea of a State within a State is not entirely imaginary.

Due to its cryptic and obscure nature and the vast sums of money it commands, the US deep state is the usual suspect whenever something goes awry REUTERS/Leah Millis (REUTERS)

Opinion

Updated on Dec 12, 2024 08:49 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

How geopolitics is set to change with Trump 2.0

For India, Trump 2.0 calls for reflection, recalibration, and readjustment based on a thorough assessment of what he and his brand of radical politics represent

New Delhi, Nov 06 (ANI): (File Photo) Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hand with US President Donald Trump during the joint press statement, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. (ANI Photo) (ANI)

Opinion

Published on Nov 06, 2024 07:16 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

It is too early to write Hezbollah’s obituary

The question is whether Hezbollah can absorb the blow of the loss of its co-founder and maintain its stature as the deadliest menace on Israel’s doorstep.

A person holds a poster of Lebanon's Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, during a symbolic funeral in Baghdad, Iraq, September 29, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani(REUTERS)

Opinion

Published on Sep 29, 2024 10:22 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Brazil-X fight, and limits of free speech in democracies

The conduct of X and Musk is indeed problematic and it must be tamed, if not reformed. However, the Brazilian method is crude and counterproductive

Demonstrators during a protest against the country's ban of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024 Photographer: Maira Erlich/Bloomberg (Bloomberg)

Opinion

Published on Sep 10, 2024 09:01 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Why Israel versus Iran is a lose-lose situation

As the world braces for the next salvo in the series of violent tit-for-tat attacks between traditional rivals Iran and Israel, a sobering fact bears reminding. There are no clear winners in this blood feud that has defined geopolitical fault lines in West Asia for over four decades.

FILE - In this photo taken and released by the semiofficial Fars News Agency, a Noor missile is launched from the coast to the sea during Iranian naval maneuvers in the Oman Sea, near the port town of Bandar Jask, Iran on May 11, 2010. (Hossein Zohrevand/Fars News Agency, File) (AP)

Opinion

Published on Aug 21, 2024 09:05 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Moderating politics in the age of extremes

The attack on Donald Trump is symptomatic of a larger crisis in many democracies, including the US, where public life has become polarised over multiple fault lines

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures with a bloodied face while he is assisted by U.S. Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo (REUTERS)

Opinion

Published on Jul 15, 2024 09:02 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

What Julian Assange did to western world order

The hesitation in Washington to directly intervene in costly unwinnable wars abroad, which we see these days, may even be termed a moral victory for Assange.

TOPSHOT - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gives thumbs up after arriving at Canberra Airport in Canberra on June 26, 2024, after he pleaded guilty at a US court in Saipan to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate US national defence information. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned home to Australia to start life as a free man June 26 after admitting he revealed US defence secrets in a deal that unlocked the door to his London prison cell. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP) (AFP)

Opinion

Published on Jun 26, 2024 09:16 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Chabahar is a metaphor for strategic autonomy

Chabahar deal augurs India’s rise as a leading power that can persuade or compel other countries to accommodate its national interests.

The agreement signed by India and Iran will facilitate the long-term development of Shahid Beheshti terminal of Chabahar port. (PTI photo)(HT_PRINT)

Opinion

Published on May 29, 2024 11:47 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Quad needs a security thrust to restrict China

Securitisation’ of regional partnerships is the only hope. Otherwise, China will keep squeezing adversaries until the world order is remade as per its wishes.

FILE- Leaders of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) from left to right, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pose for photo at the entrance hall of the Prime Minister's Office of Japan in Tokyo, Japan, May 24, 2022. The Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad, has repeatedly accused China of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea and of pushing its maritime territorial claims. The navies of the four countries regularly hold drills seen as part of an initiative to counter China's growing assertiveness in the Pacific.(Zhang Xiaoyu/Pool Photo via AP, File)(AP)

Opinion

Published on Apr 04, 2024 09:50 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Navalny’s death, a crisis moment for democracy

For democracy to return, the prerequisite is the democratisers must stay alive.

Rain drops cover a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.(AP)

Opinion

Published on Feb 29, 2024 10:06 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

US preoccupation with Iran is to China’s benefit

American strategic wisdom has been elusive thus far, but it is direly needed.

Opinion

Published on Feb 08, 2024 09:51 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Mapping India’s rise as a civilisational State

The ultimate message of Why Bharat Matters is that India must be accepted for what it is, not forced to fit into straitjackets that benefit other agendas

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar(ANI )

Opinion

Updated on Jan 10, 2024 10:15 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Israel requires a fresh approach with Palestine

Executing an all-out war on Hamas is not going to once and for all resolve Israel’s fundamental insecurity, which has a structural character.

Palestinians inspect damages in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Gaza City on October 9.(Reuters)

opinion

Published on Oct 09, 2023 12:36 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

IMEC promises a new model of globalisation

The beauty of IMEC is that it contains something attractive in it for all eight parties that have signed the founding Memorandum of Understanding

US President Joe Biden, Saudi Arabian PM and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and PM Narendra Modi seen during the launch of the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor.(AP)

opinion

Published on Sep 18, 2023 09:25 AM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Facing China at Brics, India stands its ground

India's growing economic potential and favourable global strategic environment position it as a rising power within Brics and a challenge to China's dominance

The Johannesburg summit revealed how far India has come on the international stage(via AFP)

opinion

Published on Aug 24, 2023 09:33 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Exercise caution on plans to expand Brics

A measured and gradual process of expansion for Brics is advised for the survival and effectiveness of the institution.

India is cagey about Brics’ expansion which lets China gain the upper hand in decision-making and agenda-setting.(Reuters | Representational Image)

opinion

Published on Aug 02, 2023 10:06 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

NATO expansionism could seed instability

Sweden's entry into NATO, following Finland's membership, has further encircled Russia and extended NATO's presence along Russia's western borders.

Prior to the Ukraine war, Russia’s land border with NATO ran up to 754 miles. (REUTERS)

opinion

Published on Jul 16, 2023 01:21 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Wagner’s attempted coup flags risks for Russia’s strongman

What exactly is Wagner and how did it rise to the stature of a parallel authority in a country where power is supposed to flow from the top?

The shortlived mutiny of the Wagner paramilitary group against Russia’s military establishment briefly raised fears of a coup d’etat or civil war, and was mysteriously aborted later through backroom deals.(REUTERS)

opinion

Published on Jun 26, 2023 10:14 AM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

India-US defence ties can be a game-changer

Deepening India-US ties lay a favourable balance of power in Asia and keep a check on authoritarian China’s push for hegemony in the Indo-Pacific

If the new India-US defence industrial roadmap fulfils its potential, it will have far-reaching strategic effects(HT File)

opinion

Published on Jun 07, 2023 09:22 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

G7 and Quad are finally taking China head on

The G7’s launch of a new “Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion” is aimed at China’s predatory practices

The G7 and Quad are finally putting the brakes on China so that the Asian country will not be allowed to remain the only game in town(PTI)

opinion

Published on May 23, 2023 08:16 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Pak’s terror factory is exposing SCO’s limits

The global history of terrorism shows how it has metastasised in a context of geopolitical rivalries and divisions which override shared multilateral interests

The gap between Pakistan’s words and deeds was so stark that India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar had to call out Bhutto as the “promoter, justifier and spokesperson of a terrorism industry”, and remind SCO peers that “taking our eyes off this menace would be detrimental to our security interests”. (ANI)

opinion

Updated on May 06, 2023 07:38 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

India’s re-emergence as a leader of global Buddhism

India’s keenness to propagate Buddhism is in keeping with its legacy as the fountainhead from which the teachings of the Buddha spread worldwide.

PM Modi at Global Buddhist Summit in Delhi on Thursday.(ANI)

opinion

Published on Apr 20, 2023 06:50 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

India-Russia ties are facing a long-term conundrum

A new foreign policy concept released by Russia on March 31 reveals the direction of Putin's thinking.

The problem here is that Putin wishes to club China and India together as part of a united front to counterbalance the West, but Beijing and New Delhi have their own distinct policies that do not coincide with Moscow’s worldview. (Reuters)

opinion

Published on Apr 06, 2023 07:28 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

The glaring paradox of Xi Jinping as peace mediator

It is ironic that the same China embarking on ambitious behind-the-scenes diplomacy to douse flames in distant geopolitical flashpoints — Iran and Saudia Arabia — is unwilling to resolve its conflicts with its neighbours.

Xi believes in establishing a Sino-centric regional system where there will be order under Chinese tutelage rather than a community of equal sovereign States. (AFP file)

opinion

Published on Mar 16, 2023 07:24 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

How India can expand Hindi’s global footprint

For Hindi to be internationalised, a precondition is to domestically affirm it within India.

Given that Hindi is the first, second or third language of at least 57% of Indians, the government has taken steps to counterbalance elitist English primacy over Hindi. (Pixabay)

opinion

Updated on Feb 26, 2023 08:06 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Controlling gun crimes needs social reset in US

Compared to democracies such as Australia, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa, which had gun massacre incidents of their own but managed to legislate and reduce the supply of weapons, the US is more extreme in terms of corporate power, social fragmentation and ideological schisms

This chronic failure to regulate availability of assault weapons, despite the mounting toll of victims and the psychological grief, is a function of excess free market capitalism, ideological polarisation and the lingering effects of centuries of slavery and racial discrimination (AFP)

opinion

Updated on Feb 06, 2023 09:52 AM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Getting to peace in Ukraine needs wisdom

The Orthodox Christmas ceasefire experiment collapsed, but it was a revealing moment that hinted at exhaustion and showed how bravado does run out of steam in long-winded conflicts. Seizing such moments with wisdom in the future will eventually open the pathway to peace.

Plumes of smoke rise from a Russian strike during a 36-hour ceasefire over Orthodox Christmas declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, from the frontline Donbas city of Bakhmut, Ukraine, January 7, 2023. (REUTERS)

opinion

Updated on Jan 08, 2023 07:52 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

Navigating a world of all-round weaponisation

In the era of all-round weaponisation and breakdown of universal globalisation, statecraft has its task cut out to attend to constructing politically friendlier networks or clubs. In times of intense crisis, the risk of even friends turning selfish remains. But friends will at least not intentionally weaponise resources against each other

The phenomenon of weaponisation of a range of goods and services such as food, fuel, electricity, finance and shipping has stood out during the Russia-Ukraine war. (AP)

opinion

Published on Dec 25, 2022 08:37 PM IST

BySreeram Chaulia

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Sreeram Chaulia

The administration is seeking to weaponise grants and funds to force universities to align with its thinking

New Delhi went into the bargaining game with an eye on mutual benefits and expanding the pie rather than dividing a fixed pie — and it has worked

The idea of a State within a State is not entirely imaginary.

For India, Trump 2.0 calls for reflection, recalibration, and readjustment based on a thorough assessment of what he and his brand of radical politics represent

The question is whether Hezbollah can absorb the blow of the loss of its co-founder and maintain its stature as the deadliest menace on Israel’s doorstep.

The conduct of X and Musk is indeed problematic and it must be tamed, if not reformed. However, the Brazilian method is crude and counterproductive

As the world braces for the next salvo in the series of violent tit-for-tat attacks between traditional rivals Iran and Israel, a sobering fact bears reminding. There are no clear winners in this blood feud that has defined geopolitical fault lines in West Asia for over four decades.

The attack on Donald Trump is symptomatic of a larger crisis in many democracies, including the US, where public life has become polarised over multiple fault lines

The hesitation in Washington to directly intervene in costly unwinnable wars abroad, which we see these days, may even be termed a moral victory for Assange.

Chabahar deal augurs India’s rise as a leading power that can persuade or compel other countries to accommodate its national interests.

Securitisation’ of regional partnerships is the only hope. Otherwise, China will keep squeezing adversaries until the world order is remade as per its wishes.

For democracy to return, the prerequisite is the democratisers must stay alive.

American strategic wisdom has been elusive thus far, but it is direly needed.

The ultimate message of Why Bharat Matters is that India must be accepted for what it is, not forced to fit into straitjackets that benefit other agendas

Executing an all-out war on Hamas is not going to once and for all resolve Israel’s fundamental insecurity, which has a structural character.

The beauty of IMEC is that it contains something attractive in it for all eight parties that have signed the founding Memorandum of Understanding

India's growing economic potential and favourable global strategic environment position it as a rising power within Brics and a challenge to China's dominance

A measured and gradual process of expansion for Brics is advised for the survival and effectiveness of the institution.

Sweden's entry into NATO, following Finland's membership, has further encircled Russia and extended NATO's presence along Russia's western borders.

What exactly is Wagner and how did it rise to the stature of a parallel authority in a country where power is supposed to flow from the top?

Deepening India-US ties lay a favourable balance of power in Asia and keep a check on authoritarian China’s push for hegemony in the Indo-Pacific

The G7’s launch of a new “Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion” is aimed at China’s predatory practices

The global history of terrorism shows how it has metastasised in a context of geopolitical rivalries and divisions which override shared multilateral interests

India’s keenness to propagate Buddhism is in keeping with its legacy as the fountainhead from which the teachings of the Buddha spread worldwide.

A new foreign policy concept released by Russia on March 31 reveals the direction of Putin's thinking.

It is ironic that the same China embarking on ambitious behind-the-scenes diplomacy to douse flames in distant geopolitical flashpoints — Iran and Saudia Arabia — is unwilling to resolve its conflicts with its neighbours.

For Hindi to be internationalised, a precondition is to domestically affirm it within India.

Compared to democracies such as Australia, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa­, which had gun massacre incidents of their own but managed to legislate and reduce the supply of weapons, the US is more extreme in terms of corporate power, social fragmentation and ideological schisms

The Orthodox Christmas ceasefire experiment collapsed, but it was a revealing moment that hinted at exhaustion and showed how bravado does run out of steam in long-winded conflicts. Seizing such moments with wisdom in the future will eventually open the pathway to peace.

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Compared to democracies such as Australia, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa, which had gun massacre incidents of their own but managed to legislate and reduce the supply of weapons, the US is more extreme in terms of corporate power, social fragmentation and ideological schisms