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Rajesh Rajagopalan

Rajesh Rajagopalan

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US deep state’s involvement in Nepal, Bangladesh is an absurd conspiracy theory

The neighbourhood is a region of potential risks for any regionally dominant power like India, but regional dominance also carries some advantages.

15.09.2025 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

India’s response to Trump is an emotional one. Tariff damage is psychological

India keeps falling into ‘great power’ fantasy trap. Think of the 1950s, when New Delhi mistook its all-too-real potential for actual power, and...

04.08.2025 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Iran’s brutal regime is facing a reckoning. Consequences of US attack will go beyond Tehran

Iran has been making threats, seeking to deter others simply through its capacity for reckless behaviour, despite its weakness in other ways. But...

22.06.2025 30

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Did India achieve deterrence? Depends on whether Pakistan was psychologically bruised

Deterrence and punishment depend on psychologically impacting those we are trying to influence. The problem is that we cannot know with certainty how...

11.05.2025 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Operation Sindoor aimed at hands that wield the gun, not brains that control the hand

Deterrence itself does not appear to have been the objective of these strikes. If it was, then the focus had to be on the Pakistan military,...

07.05.2025 3

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Trump’s reckless policies won’t be the end of the American era or its global leadership

Leadership is not just about being a leader but also having others who are willing to be led.

10.04.2025 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

A weakened India is trying to make friends with China again. It has already failed twice

Being burnt once apparently wasn’t enough for India’s foreign policy decision-makers because they were back trying to reset relations with China.

07.04.2025 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Trump can’t withdraw from allies overnight. US is too enmeshed in global order

American adversaries such as Russia are salivating at the thought of the US withdrawing from its global position. China is eager to claim the mantle...

03.03.2025 8

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

India-US ties stuck in cute acronyms. Delhi must wait out the chaos

A US that makes peace with Beijing and leaves the Indo-Pacific to Chinese influence will harm New Delhi.

17.02.2025 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Jimmy Carter’s India connect ended in frustration. He represented global rise of US power

Morarji Desai’s deeply anti-nuclear stance should have made for common ground with Jimmy Carter. Except it didn’t.

30.12.2024 5

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Trump’s blanket desire to avoid all wars can lead to the same wars he wants to avoid

Donald Trump is returning to a more dangerous world. His crude thinking won't help against China.

11.11.2024 10

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

Let’s talk about the Democrats, the party of elites

Kamala Harris' balancing act just didn't work in the 2024 US Presidential election. It was an impossible hill to climb anyway.

06.11.2024 3

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

India keeps making the same foreign policy mistakes. World doesn’t think we’re being moral

India has never been nor is it today as important as New Delhi thinks it is. It is somewhat more disadvantageous today than in the 1950s or even...

11.09.2024 3

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan

US, China start new nuclear arms race. India must reassess its arsenal

India has no submarine-launch missile that can credibly threaten China even from the Bay of Bengal, let alone further south in the Indian Ocean.

28.08.2024 1

ThePrint

Rajesh Rajagopalan