Dnyanesh Kamat

As the world has watched in horror at the events unfolding in Israel and Palestine, it has been hard to find analysis that suggests the conflict is anything other than unsolvable. Yet now, more than ever, states must use this moment to pursue a resolution of the wider Israel-Palestine issue.
If left unresolved, its effects will no longer be confined just to the Middle East. Instead, it will destabilize countries far away from the conflict. And above all, it will continue the misery heaped upo...

Azerbaijan’s swift military operation has probably concluded the prolonged Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but brought with it rising concerns of a potential new inter-state conflict involving Armenia, Azerbaijan and possibly Turkey, Iran and Russia. While the regional implications have been made clear, the wider geopolitical implications must not be ignored.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has thrust the perennial debate of territorial sovereignty against self-determination into the global spotligh...

India made history with its Chandrayaan-3 mission, soft-landing near the moon’s south pole, becoming the fourth nation to complete a lunar landing and the first to do so in that part of the moon.
Last month’s accomplishment has sparked a flurry of debates, especially in the Western media, questioning the rationale behind a developing country investing in space exploration.
Yet the moon mission was not just a technological triumph. Executed at a cost lower than the production budget of some Ho...

Much has been said and written about how artificial intelligence will revolutionize the world as we know it, from the way we learn and work to how we traverse the globe and beyond. But concern is growing over the use of AI in warfare, which, alongside climate change, could lead to devastating consequences for humanity.
AI already has combat experience. In March 2020, a Turkish-made drone used facial recognition to engage enemy combatants in Libya. Three years on, there is still a lack of regu...

The road to mitigating the Afghan people’s suffering goes through Washington

Saudi Arabia is in talks on joining BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB), a precursor to inclusion in a club that comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Extending membership to Riyadh would signal the bank’s interest in challenging the West’s monopoly over global financial institutions and represent a counterweight to rich-country clubs such as the Group of Seven, which are seen as neocolonial structures, especially in the Global South.
Saudi Arabia’s financial heft would give ...

India, by some estimates, is the world’s most populous country and one of its most youthful. But as its population and economy expand – the International Monetary Fund projects the economy to grow by 6.1% this year, among the fastest in the world – so is the unemployment rate.
Unemployment stood at 7.45% in February, up from 7.14% in January. And estimates show the rate increasing to 7.80% in March, including 8.51% in urban areas.
Creating stable jobs for Indian youth is a top challenge for t...

Despite US President Joe Biden’s affinity for the “rule-based international order” established after World War II, his foreign policy is hastening its demise. In fact, there’s an ever-widening gulf between his administration’s homilies on internationalism and its approach to defending it.
Consider the evidence.
Last October, the Biden administration announced a raft of export controls designed to curtail Chinese companies’ access to advanced microchip technology.
It was an historic overreach,...

Iran’s decision to supply Russia with kamikaze drones and short-range ballistic missiles for use against Ukraine has brought the Islamic Republic’s firepower to the streets of European cities. The Iranian drone technology being used against Kiev has been in the hands of proxy militias across the Middle East for a number of years, where Tehran has tested and refined its weaponry.
Aside from showing off its drone arsenal and cementing relations with Moscow, Iran’s involvement in Ukraine is Tehr...

As Russian Jews vote with their feet and new alliances are formed amid the backdrop of war, the international community must remind Russia and Israel that their relationship has implications far beyond their own borders.
Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Russian Jews have been emigrating to Israel in growing numbers. Angered over the invasion and fearful of persecution, some 20,500 of the estimated 165,000 Jews in Russia have left for Israel and more are expected to fo...

When the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri was announced last week, the government of India, a country singled out as a target by the al-Qaeda leader, remained quiet.
Many analysts read the fact that he was able to base himself in the Afghan capital as the Taliban’s failure to keep its promise that the group had cut ties with extremist groups threatening other countries. Theories swirled that Pakistan had given up his location to the Americans in a great betrayal.
Either way, Zawahiri’s death on a K...

In the month since Nupur Sharma, a former spokeswoman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), offended Muslims around the world with disparaging comments about the Prophet Muhammad, India’s diplomats have been doing damage control – with limited success.
After 18 Islamic countries, along with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), condemned Sharma’s remarks, the BJP dismissed her comments as those of “fringe elements,” failing to explain how a...

During his recent five-day trip to Asia, US President Joe Biden announced the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a 12-country initiative that will seek regulatory alignment. The aim is to deepen economic engagement across four pillars – connected economy (data, labor, and environmental standards), resilient economy (supply chains), clean economy (decarbonization), and fair economy (tax and anti-money-laundering).
This initiative is a weak alternative to the China-led Regional Comprehensi...

Muslim women’s clothing choices continue to be weaponized and policed by patriarchal states around the world. From India to France, Afghanistan to Iran, Muslim women are being used as cannon fodder for political purposes by male-dominated states. Only the justifications and political end-goals differ. But the playbook remains in essence the same.
In India’s Karnataka state, university administrations have suddenly realized that the hijab, a scarf worn to cover the hair and neck, violates the ...

The dam issue, then, will not only be a marker of a move away from a US-dominated world but an important test case for China’s superpower ambitions.
Tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt over a highly controversial dam on the Blue Nile are expected to rise over the next few months as the rainy season marks the next phase in filling the reservoir. The dispute already represents one of the world’s most serious diplomatic conundrums at a time when climate change is making water scarcity a more cri...