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Ashok Swain

Ashok Swain

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Guess who isn’t calling the shots?

Guess who isn’t calling the shots?

When Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing days after Donald Trump had left, Xi Jinping did not merely host another summit. He staged a geopolitical...

31.05.2026 10

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Iran delivers a lesson in the art of war

Iran delivers a lesson in the art of war

Wars are not won only by those who drop bombs and kill people. They are won by those who achieve their political objectives while denying the enemy....

24.05.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Friends, allies and the farce of strategic autonomy

Friends, allies and the farce of strategic autonomy

Donald Trump would have hoped for better when he visited Beijing on 13-15 May, but the trip, instead of becoming a feather in his deal-making cap,...

23.05.2026 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Operation Sindoor was a stress test India failed

A year after Operation Sindoor, the Modi government still brandishes it as a signal that terrorism traced to Pakistan will be punished. It would have...

17.05.2026 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Operation Sindoor’s unintended reckoning

A year after Operation Sindoor, the Narendra Modi government of India still describes it as proof of a new doctrine, a signal that terrorism traced to...

12.05.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The other high-risk gamble in West Asia

The UAE’s decision to walk out of OPEC and OPEC is not just about oil. It represents a blunt geopolitical rupture. Abu Dhabi is no longer...

10.05.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Presiding over its own irrelevance

It’s India’s turn at the helm of BRICS this year and its position in the bloc — once seen as a counterweight to Western-dominated alliances and...

03.05.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Can the Gulf states weather this war?

The Gulf countries didn’t start the war. Yet they’re paying a terrible price. In battered infrastructure and the erosion of a carefully...

26.04.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Why Trump’s America is a lonely superpower

Great powers sometimes isolate themselves through overreach. The United States under Donald Trump is in that zone. By aligning reflexively with...

19.04.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

A re-enactment of Gaza in Lebanon

While the fear-fascinated gaze of the world was fixed on Donald Trump’s dangerous brinkmanship with Iran, the simultaneous devastation in Lebanon...

11.04.2026 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

How the US will pay for Trump’s expansionism

Donald Trump’s second term has stripped away the ideological veil that once softened America’s manoeuvres for global dominance. What earlier US...

05.04.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Cuba next on Trump’s imperial hitlist

Donald Trump has not been coy about Cuba. He has openly coveted the ‘honour’ of taking the island. He has also suggested he can do what he likes...

28.03.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Lessons from a mindless ‘war of choice’ and why military might cannot force regime change

There is a particular kind of strategic trap arrogant powerful leaders repeatedly fall into. A war launched with limited objectives achieves early...

21.03.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Why America will not win this war

The United States, together with Israel, has once again stepped into a war in the Middle East without a clear objective, without a coherent strategy,...

14.03.2026 50

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Nepal has another date with democracy

Nepal’s general election on 5 March is being held at a time when the geopolitical weather is heavy and uncertain. This is not just another round in...

01.03.2026 50

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Tarique Rahman’s test at the edge of the Ganga

With the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) winning a decisive two-thirds majority and Tarique Rahman sworn in as prime minister, the country has, for...

22.02.2026 150

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Rebuilding Gaza must begin with the environment

As diplomats negotiate ceasefires, donor conferences pledge billions for reconstruction and security strategists sketch out stabilisation plans, there...

15.02.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

In the US-Iran standoff, pray diplomacy wins

08.02.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Europe is late to its own sermon

02.02.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Is the ‘golden gate’ closing on India?

24.01.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

SIR: A purge and a voter list made to order

17.01.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Iran: Is the revolution in danger of being hijacked?

17.01.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The silence that destroys the rules

05.01.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

From American dominance to the China challenge

04.01.2026 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Is Netanyahu exporting Gaza’s crisis to the Horn of Africa?

04.01.2026 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Learning to live with Trump’s America

28.12.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The God debate that went viral

28.12.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The world looks short on political will

28.12.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Europe can’t do enough to appease Trump

14.12.2025 40

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Ask why Assam does not need an SIR

29.11.2025 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The devil in the new labour codes

29.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The gang of 272 may be a sign of continuing (reverse) evolution

29.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Why the BJP suddenly loves the Cholas

29.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

In Gaza, while you weren’t looking…

29.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Is it time yet to boycott elections?

22.11.2025 20

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Ashok Swain

The fantasy of ‘free and fair’ elections

22.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Are we being overrun by ‘AI slop’?

22.11.2025 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Is India jettisoning its climate goals?

16.11.2025 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Our air, their privilege: Delhi’s choking reality

16.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The rise of Zohran Mamdani and what it means for the Hindutva project

16.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The quiet build-up of India’s household debt

08.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

Ending wars not quite a cinch, Trump is finding out

08.11.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The United Nations is 80. It has never been more fragile – or so necessary

24.10.2025 30

Scroll.in

Ashok Swain

A shoe hurled in Delhi heard in Bihar

11.10.2025 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

This is all about the greed for land

11.10.2025 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The merchants of war are raking it in

11.10.2025 20

National Herald

Ashok Swain

A safe bet for freedom: Why the Nobel committee chose María Corina Machado for the peace prize

10.10.2025 30

Scroll.in

Ashok Swain

Why the rupee is plumbing new lows

20.09.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

The Gaza genocide: Not 65,000 but 680,000! So what?

20.09.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain

E20: The silent experiment at your petrol pump

13.09.2025 30

National Herald

Ashok Swain