BOOK REVIEW: The geopolitics of oil
Two books analyse the outlook of international oil and the shifting terrain of world power. 17 June 2008The HinduThe geopolitics of oil Siddharth Varadarajan UNITED STATES FOREIGN OIL POLICY SINCE … Continue reading
Neither flat nor round but bound
REVIEW: Ties that bind the world may not be easy to sever but global connections can be mediated. 22 April 2008The Hindu Neither flat nor round but bound SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN … Continue reading
Why Iran matters to U.S.
Two new books chronicle the ‘crude’ reality of U.S. policies towards oil-rich regions in the world 31 July 2007The Hindu Why Iran matters to U.S.Siddharth Varadarajan IRAN OIL: The New … Continue reading
A ‘warts and all’ view of Indian science
BOOK REVIEW: With interesting tidbits about the 1974 atomic test at Pokhran and the economics of India’s nuclear energy programme, Ashok Parthasarathi’s Technology at the Core provides a useful account … Continue reading
Iran, the U.S. and the burden of history
Ali M. Ansari’s book, Confronting Iran, is an honest and dispassionate account of the less than honest intentions and lost opportunities that have been a part of the U.S. approach … Continue reading
A Call to Honour: Not exactly total recall
Jaswant Singh provides a partial account of a key period in Indian diplomacy. He may have been answering a call to honour but there are clearly events and decisions that … Continue reading
Less than allies, more than partners
Review: C. Raja Mohan’s Impossible Allies is an establishmentarian account of the India-U.S. nuclear deal that overstates the extent to which the two countries share strategic interests. 16 May 2006The … Continue reading
Review: More at stake than the monarchy
With the partnership between Nepal’s parliamentary parties and Maoists having brought the Himalayan kingdom to a historic turning point, the reconfiguration of Nepalese politics, social relations and foreign policy is … Continue reading
Lifting the veil from the Security Council
Javier Perez de Cuellar told Chinmaya R. Gharekhan of India in 1991 that the U.N. Secretary-General’s job had lost its charm now that the Cold War had ended and the … Continue reading
When power subverts the law
Two seminal books question the possibility of international criminal justice in a unipolar world 10 January 2006The Hindu When power subverts the law Siddharth Varadarajan HOW AMERICA GETS AWAY WITH … Continue reading
Neocon lite nuclear agenda: A review of George Perkovich et al.’s "Universal Compliance: A strategy for nuclear security"
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has come up with a liberal counter-proliferation Bible whose selective implementation will likely leave the world more unequal – and dangerous. 11 October 2005The … Continue reading
Much more than Modi: A review of Yagnik and Sheth’s ‘The Shaping of Modern Gujarat’
History usually begins or restarts at that prosaic, magical or bloody moment when civilisation dawns or is extinguished. If February 2002 was such a moment for Gujarat—when the Narendra Modi … Continue reading
Interview with Amartya Sen: Arguments for a better world
14 August 2005The Hindu Arguments for a better world SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN Amartya Sen’s new book, The Argumentative Indian, is an original journey into the history of ideas. He says India’s … Continue reading
I’m sorry, but the world’s still round
2 August 2005 Review of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat – A Brief History of the Globalized World in the 21st Century (Allen Lane, 2005).(A shorter version of this … Continue reading
Siddharth Varadarajan 