Columnists

C. Raja Mohan

C. Raja Mohan is a Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, Delhi--a division of the Asia Society India Centre in Mumbai. He is a contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express.

For a better South Asian neighbourhood

Tue, May 17, 2022

C Raja Mohan writes: Ukraine conflict, developments in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan underline need to reframe regional ties, work with the logic of geography in Subcontinent

Ukraine conflict won’t make Biden abandon Indo-Pacific strategy

Tue, May 10, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: The US emphasis on partnerships rather than unilateralism in dealing with the China challenge means India’s agency in the region can only grow.

Europe is looming larger than ever in India’s strategic calculus

Wed, May 04, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: The Ukraine war has shown that India needs strong commercial and security partnerships with Europe that stand on their own merit and bring the many synergies between them into active play.

India, Europe and the Russian complication

Tue, Apr 26, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Ukraine war has persuaded Delhi to recalibrate its great power relations, compelled Brussels to wake up from geopolitical slumber.

A new shine to old ties

Tue, Apr 19, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: India and UK have faced legacy issues, fundamental paradoxes. Now, amid a changing strategic scenario, Boris Johnson’s visit is well timed to move the relationship forward

The wider impact of Pakistan’s internal crisis

Tue, Apr 12, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Its battles are tied to external geopolitical equations and rivalries

Imran Khan has done what no civilian leader in Pakistan has done before

Tue, Apr 05, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: He has challenged the army’s hegemony on a broad range of issues, blocked the no-confidence motion against him by dissolving the assembly.

With the Russian invasion, the spotlight is on Poland’s role in European politics

Wed, Mar 30, 2022

C Raja Mohan writes: Unlike a divided Germany that did not have full sovereignty and was troubled by its status as the fulcrum of the Cold War, Poland has risen to the occasion

On South Asia, US must reorient itself

Tue, Mar 22, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Washington could seize the current opportunity, amid Ukraine crisis, to elevate US's salience, limit the traditional economic and military weight of China and Russia in the Subcontinent.

Ukraine invasion and the great geopolitical reset

Thu, Mar 17, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Whichever way it plays out, the current crisis has affirmed America’s pole position

How invasion of Ukraine could transform nuclear landscape of Asia

Sat, Mar 19, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Countries in the region are worried and want to prepare for the possibility that China may emulate Russia and invade Taiwan.

Standing against Putin’s imperialist project

Tue, Mar 01, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: As Europe unites against the Russian president’s aggression, India must realise that Putin and Russia are not the same.

India’s Ukraine dilemma

Wed, Feb 23, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Delhi can’t forever view Central Europe through Moscow’s prism. It must appreciate region's salience, independence.

The significance of the Indo-Pacific for India

Wed, Feb 16, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Strengthening engagement with the region, stronger partnerships can enhance India’s reach and impact.

India and the Great Power rivalry

Wed, Feb 09, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Delhi has its own interests to keep in mind. It will struggle to tread the middle ground as Russia-China and US-led blocs consolidate their global coalitions

How India can adapt to global geoeconomic churn

Wed, Feb 02, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Until now, India had the luxury of treating its foreign, economic and strategic policies as separate domains. It needs to integrate its financial, trade, technological, security and foreign policies

India’s challenge in European geopolitics

Tue, Jan 25, 2022

🔴 C. Raja Mohan writes: Greater engagement with Europe and dealing with its multiple contradictions must necessarily be important elements of India’s international relations today

Can Pakistan put off change again?

Tue, Jan 18, 2022

🔴 C. Raja Mohan writes: Islamabad’s new national security policy acknowledges the need to walk a different path as its multiple crises become more intense. Delhi should watch, be prepared to react positively

Understanding the Eurasian turmoil

Wed, Jan 12, 2022

🔴 C. Raja Mohan writes: Current crises in Belarus, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Kazakhstan are reshaping the geopolitics of the region, with Russia at the very centre of that restructuring.

What lessons does Ukraine offer South Asia?

Tue, Jan 04, 2022

C. Raja Mohan writes: Russia’s face-off with the West shows that spheres of influence are here to stay as instruments to regulate competition between great powers. But they endure only when the dominant power is wise and its neighbours are prudent.

The prospects for Indo-Pak relations in 2022

Wed, Dec 29, 2021

🔴 C Raja Mohan writes: The two neighbours may well just muddle along in 2022. But structural changes are altering the internal and external context of the bilateral relationship as well the regional balance of power

Why the Russia-West equation matters to India

Tue, Dec 21, 2021

🔴 C Raja Mohan writes: In the past, Delhi’s strategic enthusiasm for Moscow was shaped by India’s difficulties with the West. Today, a reconciliation between Russia and the West will make help India manage its own security challenges.

The case for deeper technological ties with London

Tue, Dec 14, 2021

🔴 C Raja Mohan writes: It makes strategic and economic sense for Delhi, as the UK is one of the few nations to have laid out ambitious policy goals with an eye on the unfolding technological revolution.

Putin’s visit must be used to realise the potential of India-Russia ties

Tue, Dec 07, 2021

🔴 C Raja Mohan writes: Great power politics puts limits on the bilateral relationship. But Delhi and Moscow have no reason to be satisfied with the poor state of their commercial ties.