Opinion

The oil-rich monarchies of the Persian Gulf are often described as petrostates. But the US-Israeli war with Iran has highlighted that they are also saltwater kingdoms, societies whose survival depends on desalination, or converting seawater into potable water on an industrial scale. Life in the...

By Jerzy Wójcik Contrary to the optimistic vision of stabilisation and economic development in the Middle East contained in the Trump administration’s US strategic documents, Israeli political elites appear to perceive the coming years as a period of systemic uncertainty. From their perspective, Israel is...

By James K Galbraith The National Securi ty Strategy that US President Donald Trump’s administration published last November was remarkable, far-reaching, and unlike any other NSS that has appeared since George H.W. Bush “kicked the Vietnam syndrome” in the early 1990s. In the cover letter...

By Dhurjati Mukherjee Lack of decency and morality is a political trend reiterated by leaders. The clamour raised by some states and the drama enacted, especially by West Bengal, regarding SIR bear testimony that they don’t want the mandatory revision. Is it because the parties...

By Malay Mishra It’s nearly a month since the West Asia conflict began with the combined Israeli-US assault on Iran on 28th February, with the targeted killings of the Supreme Leader and scores of senior military and security officials. The war has seen a progressive...

Six weeks can be a very long time in Indian politics. On 10 February, Congress MP Pradyot Bordoloi angrily tweeted against Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sharma after a controversial video surfaced of Sarma shooting at a man in Muslim attire. “Shame on you, HBS. Never...

India today stands at the precipice of a mammoth crisis: the spectre of youth unemployment looms like a dark cloud over its demographic dividend. With a median age of 28 and one of the youngest populations on Earth, the country has long asserted its demographic...

With his recent speech describing the rules-based international order as a “fiction,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made a mainstay of debates across the Global South fashionable in the West. Developing and emerging economies have long criticised the inconsistent implementation of international rules and double...

Charudutta Panigrahi In 1978, the Supreme Court did something that raised eyebrows and chuckles in equal measure—it declared that temples could be classified as “industries.” The ruling, in Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board v. A. Rajappa, broadened the definition of “industry” to include any...

S Raghotham A petition seeking an independent, court-monitored investigation into the AI171 crash in Ahmedabad last June was stalled yet again on Tuesday with the Solicitor General of India seeking another week’s time to submit a progress report on the Aircraft Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB)...