Antonio Gramsci’s reflection, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters,” is often invoked […]
Strategic Transactionalism: Russia’s Post-Assad Playbook in the Middle East
For most of 2025, Western capitals perceived that Russia’s position in the Middle East was in terminal decline. The fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 undermined Moscow’s policy in the Levant. Furthermore, under Israel’s offensive war against the Kremlin, which the grinding war in Ukraine had already absorbed, it seemed to have neither the bandwidth nor the capital to sustain its influence in the Middle East and, above all, to lose leverage in safeguarding its strategic interests once Washington and Tel Aviv turned their full attention on Tehran. These setbacks fed a narrative that Moscow’s decades-long project of relevance in the Middle East is running out. A year and a half later, that obituary looks premature. Through a combination…
Review of Zeynep Özgen’s Pious Politics: Cultural Foundations of the Islamic Movement in Turkey
Pious Politics: Cultural Foundations of the Islamic Movement in TurkeyZeynep…
Strategic Transactionalism: Russia’s Post-Assad Playbook in the Middle East
For most of 2025, Western capitals perceived that Russia’s position…
Why India and Iran Cannot Afford to Drift Apart
The war that has convulsed West Asia since February has…
Legacy of Leadership: Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the Gulf’s New Horizon
The former Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al…
Review of “Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History”
Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political HistoryVali NasrNJ: Princeton University Press2025…
Settler Colonialism as Structure: From French Algeria to Zionist Palestine
In moments of extreme violence when cities are flattened, populations displaced, and humanitarian language collapses under the weight of mass death, the temptation may be […]
Can Free Trade Deliver Peace? India’s FTAs in a Mercantilist World
The current instability brought on by the explosion of bilateralism in international trade ties has touched every country in the world. Neo-mercantilist trading practices are […]
Crisis in Iran: Old Revolution, New Revolutionaries
Iran has endured unprecedented crises in recent years, such as the 12-day war with Israel (and the United States), economic deterioration under continued international economic […]
Survival Beyond Death: Gendered Violence, Memory, and Identity After the Armenian Genocide
The widespread “atrocities committed against the Armenian people” during the First World War in the Ottoman territories is regarded as the first genocide of the […]
When War Becomes Profitable: Rethinking Clausewitz in the Age of Hybrid Warfare
The 18th-century Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once famously said that“war is a continuation of politics by other means”. But he would […]
Why Terrorism Thrives in a World That Claims to Be Civilised
Over the last century, waves of terrorism have consistently found new sets of principles, logic, and persuasiveness. The advent of modern barbarism, despite its roots […]
Reclaiming the Conflict in Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s ‘Mujhse Pehli si Mohabbat’
When the Progressive Writers’ Movement emerged in the 1930s, it was an attempt by the Urdu literati of the day, such as Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed […]
No Country for Women: Can Indian Women Breathe without Fear?
The United Nations has designated 25 November as the Day Against Gender-Based Violence. Since 2000, the day has been officially declared as International Day for […]
From Mao to Xi: China’s Great Reorientation and Its Quest for Gobal Power Status
“There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes, he will shake the world.” This quote, often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, has been […]