Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India, is a former Under Secretary General of the UN and an award-winning novelist and commentator.
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2009-07-15
| The Indian Ocean Rim Countries’ Association for Regional Cooperation is perhaps the most extraordinary international grouping that most people have never heard of. All of Samuel Huntington’s famously clashing civilizations are represented, uniting the widest possible array of worldviews in their smallest imaginable combination - just 18 countries.... read |
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2009-05-07
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With the results of India's month-long general election set to be announced on May 16, only one outcome is certain: another period of broad coalition rule. That may not be a bad thing, since coalition politics gives representation to the myriad interests that make up a diverse and complex society, and ensures that the country as a whole accepts the policies ultimately adopted.... read |
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2009-04-14
| Beginning this month, the largest exercise of the democratic franchise in history will take place, as Indian voters head to the polls to elect a new national parliament. Unlike most developing countries, Indians now take for granted that elections will take place, that they will be free and fair, and that they will result in actual transfers of power.... read |
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2009-03-13
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With the world’s most developed economies reeling under the incubus of what is already being called the Great Recession, India at the beginning of the year issued a revised forecast of 7.1% GDP growth in the 2008-2009 fiscal year. So, for those looking for signs of recovery from the global economic downturn, India remains the place to watch. ... read |
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2009-02-13
| Danny Boyle's film "Slumdog Millionaire" has generated protest in India over its title, its depiction of the country's poverty, and its portrayal of Indians as conniving, unprincipled, and ruthless. But, for precisely the same reasons, the film has generated considerably more admiration among Indians.... read |
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2009-01-12
| As Israeli planes and tanks exact a heavy toll on Gaza, India’s leaders and strategic thinkers have been watching with an unusual degree of interest – and some empathy. When Indians watch Israel take the fight to the enemy, some cannot resist wishing that they could do something similar in Pakistan. ... read |
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2008-12-03
| NEW DELHI – The fallout from the terror attacks in Mumbai last week has already shaken India. Deep and sustained anger across the country – at its demonstrated vulnerability to terror and at the multiple institutional failures that allowed such loss of life – has prompted the resignations of the Home Minister in the national government and the Chief Minister and his Deputy in the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. As evidence mounts that the attacks were planned and directed from Pakistani territory, calls for decisive action have intensified. But what can India do?... read |
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2008-11-14
| Among the many international consequences of Barack Obama’s stunning victory in the United States is the widespread introspection around the world about whether such a breakthrough could happen elsewhere. In most countries, the answer is no, but in India it is a definite possibility.... read |
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2008-10-06
| The ratification by the United States Congress of the historic India-US Nuclear Agreement marks a remarkable new development in world affairs. Indeed, as America struggles with financial crisis and quagmires in the Middle East and Central Asia, sealing this agreement may be one of the beleaguered Bush administration’s enduring foreign policy accomplishments.... read |
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Musharraf’s Ambiguous Legacy
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Shashi Tharoor 
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Pakistan is again in the grip of chaos, with its border areas in Islamist hands and its powerful intelligence apparatus - the creator and patron of the Taliban - out of the control of the elected civilian government. By the time President Pervez Musharraf resigned, he had already lost the ability to do anything about it.... read
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2005-09-12
| For a United Nations official to discuss reform of the international system is rather like an Englishman talking about the weather: it is a staple of daily conversation, but it always seems that real change remains just over the horizon. On Wednesday, 166 heads of state and government will gather in New York for a summit that we hope will take the reform process a major step forward.... read |
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2008-05-16
| It is fashionable these days, particularly in the West, to speak of India and China in the same breath. In fact, their differences far outweigh their similarities, although both countries clearly share a strong interest in close cooperation.... read |
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2008-06-13
| Cricket, once the sport of the British upper classes, is in India a great leveler. Everything about the game seems ideally suited to the Indian national character: its rich complexity, the endless possibilities and variations that can occur with each delivery, the dozen different ways of getting out – all are reminiscent of a society of infinite forms and varieties.... read |
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2008-07-14
| The last six months have witnessed a proliferation of incidents along the disputed Sino-Indian frontier. While fears of imminent major hostilities are clearly overblown, as China, with the Olympics looming, is unlikely to initiate a clash, Chinese officials have taken pains to assert China's claim to 92,000 square miles of Indian territory.... read |
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2006-04-26
| Who will succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary General is a hot question among diplomats. Shashi Tharoor, UN Under Secretary General, explores what the job involves.... read |
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2008-08-01
| China’s dedicated Olympic athletes are widely assumed to have dozens of gold and silver medals in their grasp. Whether or not they overtake the US in the final tally, however, one thing is certain: China’s neighbor and regional geopolitical rival, India, will be lucky to win even a single medal, extending a long and sorry history of athletic failure.... read |
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2008-08-19
| Pakistan is again in the grip of chaos, with its border areas in Islamist hands and its powerful intelligence apparatus - the creator and patron of the Taliban - out of the control of the elected civilian government. By the time President Pervez Musharraf resigned, he had already lost the ability to do anything about it.... read |
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2002-06-04
| Even in our globalizing world, the question as to whether "human rights" is an essentially Western concept, which ignores the very different cultural, economic and political realities of the South, persists. Can the values of a consumer society be applied to societies with nothing to consume? At the risk of sounding frivolous: when you stop a man in traditional dress from beating his wife, are you upholding her human rights or violating his? ... read |
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2008-12-03
| NEW DELHI – The fallout from the terror attacks in Mumbai last week has already shaken India. Deep and sustained anger across the country – at its demonstrated vulnerability to terror and at the multiple institutional failures that allowed such loss of life – has prompted the resignations of the Home Minister in the national government and the Chief Minister and his Deputy in the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. As evidence mounts that the attacks were planned and directed from Pakistani territory, calls for decisive action have intensified. But what can India do?... read |
