Kanishk Tharoor

The Stagnant Order The end of rising powers.

A really bracing essay from Michael Beckley in the new issue of @foreignaffairs.com on the stagnation of the global order. "The world is now a closed club of aging incumbents, circled by middle powers, developing countries, and failing states." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

"The more the United States seeks to undermine Brazil’s sovereignty and destabilize its democratic institutions—including by implicitly advocating regime change—the more geopolitical space it creates for China to expand its already considerable influence in the country."

Trump’s Collision Course With Brazil How U.S. policy is playing into China’s hands—and remaking Latin America.

As Lula speaks at the UN, read the scholar and former Brazilian official Hussein Kalout on Trump's vendetta against Brazil: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

The Unparalleled Devastation of Gaza Why punishing civilians has not yielded strategic success.

According to Robert Pape, Israel's war in Gaza has killed five to ten percent of the pre-war population, making the Israeli offensive "the most lethal case of a Western democracy using the punishment of civilians as a tactic of war." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/unpar...

Column | As Gaza starves, Israel’s far right sees a dream coming true Members of Israel’s government embrace the Trump-inspired vision of a Gaza of gleaming towers, ritzy tourism and pristine neighborhoods, but without Palestinians.

“There’s no hunger in Gaza,” Eliyahu said in the same interview, dismissing reports of starvation as anti-Israel propaganda. “But we don’t need to be concerned with hunger in the Strip. Let the world worry about it.” @ishaantharoor.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

How to Sell a Clash of Civilizations The incoherence of Samuel Huntington’s famous thesis is also its power.

The Brilliance is in the Bullshit: another look at the Clash of Civilizations

foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/27/s...

If @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social eventually becomes mayor of NYC, that would mean that the mayor of NYC and the mayor of London, @london.gov.uk Sadiq Khan, the mayors of two hugely important global cities, will both belong to the same fervent, zealous tribe. Like me, they are supporters of Arsenal FC.

For many of us who came of age around the time of the Iraq War, this all feels rather bleak and familiar. And yet, before the US invaded Iraq, there were millions in the streets. If an antiwar movement remains in the US, it has been entirely subsumed by the convulsed state of American politics.

Israel’s Futile Air War Precision strikes will not destroy Iran’s nuclear program—or its government.

Read Robert Pape in @foreignaffairs.com on why Israel's air war on Iran will fail. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/israels... Even if the United States supports Israel in an attack on Fordow, it will not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear program.

Surreal that so much hinges on the wisdom of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, MTG, and others prevailing in the internecine war in the American right over the Israel-Iran conflict.

Imperial President at Home, Emperor Abroad American foreign policy in an age of unrestrained executive power.

America now has the foreign policy of a personalist dictator. New piece from me in @foreignaffairs.com

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

André Aciman with Kanishk Tharoor Brooklyn independent bookstore

Looking forward to speaking with Andre Aciman about his new book, Room on the Sea, at my local bookstore, @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-0... on July 1

Some context for my comment above about higher ed as a valuable export: In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes Prime minister over 2006-09 and former Likud member says Palestinian victims are at ‘monstrous proportions’ The former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, has said that Israel is “committing war crimes” in Gaza, saying “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers”. Olmert, who served as the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, wrote in an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper and website Haaretz that “the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success”. Continue reading...

Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes

The Brewing Transatlantic Tech War How Silicon Valley got entangled in geopolitics—and lost.

"Big Tech companies may be about to discover that not only are they never going to have access to the Chinese market but they are increasingly persona non grata in European markets, too." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Another startling exhibit of American decline.

In the history of empires, how often has the metropole said, "Oh, wait, I want to be just like the periphery"?

Column | Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone. Trump’s tariff announcements in his so-called “Liberation Day” have ushered in a whole new era of global politics, world leaders, officials and analysts say.

My latest, sifting through the wreckage:

Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone.

Free to read.
wapo.st/4li0ob2

Awaiting the avalanche of pieces on how the rest of the world can de-risk its supply chains... away from the US.

This Is America Donald Trump’s authoritarian second term has led critics to describe him as a fascist in the mold of Adolf Hitler. But Trump’s reactionary politics are all-American — and the path to defeating him runs through reform of America’s antidemocratic institutions.

"Trumpism, in other words, is an intensification of long-standing, antidemocratic, and profoundly American trends. There is hardly a need to use the term fascism to understand it. This is America, and Trump is nothing if not deeply American." Daniel Bessner jacobin.com/2025/03/trum...

What “the Global South” Really Means A modern gloss for old divisions.

"Put simply, 'global South' is a euphemism, a seemingly innocuous substitute that allows those in polite society to avoid using the phrase they really mean: the nonwhite world."
— Zachariah Mampilly www.foreignaffairs.com/world/what-g...

What happened in Lesotho and Eswatini?

Trump is seen as serious about trying to remove Gazans from the territory. There have been conversations with various Arab and African states about whether they'd be willing to accept them. The Arab plan for Gaza is seen as unrealistic because it glosses over key issues.

Interesting study that suggests the world’s population has been systematically undercounted and could be much larger than we imagine.

Narrator voice: in fact, all the official intended was disrespect.

GUEST POST: We Are Professors at Columbia. Here is How We Would Respond. Five Columbia University political scientists offer their unofficial response to the Trump administration's demands on their university.

Drezner's World has never published anything not written by the hard-working staff. Until now. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/guest-post...

America’s great research universities were not invented in Silicon Valley garages or cooked up by venture capitalists. For centuries, they’ve been built by scholars, bolstered by benefactors, and scaled up by the state.

The government is now trying to destroy them. The damage will be profound.

I decided to start a #thread 🧵 of stories about legal residents and tourists being (illegally) arrested, detained and/or deported by the Trump regime. I'll only post stories from serious sources, as rumors and conspiracies are really not needed in this authoritarian moment.