Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by T.S. Tirumurti
Deccan Center
South India's Pharmaceutical Industry: The Case for South India as India's Pharmaceutical Powerhouse Author: Michelle Teresa Sebastian Published on: 19 May 2026 Political Change in Nepal: Regional Implication and Concerns Author: Sairakshit Raghupathy Published on: 08 May 2026 Cracks in the Cartel Author: Venkatakrishnan Asuri Published on: 04 May 2026 China’s Defence Modernisation and Security Implications for India Author: Lt Gen S L Narasimhan Published on: 28 Apr 2026 West Asia War:...
Perspectives on the West Asian conflict
People attend a gathering to support Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, on March 9, 2026. | Photo Credit: Reuters Published - March 10, 2026 01:52 am IST
How the war in Iran threatens to spill over Premium
Residents look on and take pictures as flames and smoke rise from an oil storage facility struck as attacks hit the city during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran on March 7, 2026. Photo: Alireza Sotakbar/ISNA via AP Iran’s clerical regime has been brutal.
The Iran war intensifies India’s strategic challenge Premium
The Iran war is not a war to eliminate the “imminent threat” to the United States. Neither is it a pre-emptive strike to stop Iran from striking Israel or American assets. Nor is it a war to stop the rebuilding of Iran’s nuclear programme. It is not even a war to destroy Iranian ballistic missiles. Eliminating an ideology It is a war to destroy the ideology which drives the Iranian government. And as Israel and the U.S. claim, regime change is the path to achieve it.
The course ahead for Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan
Shortly before the second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel (October 7, 2023), United States President Donald Trump unveiled his 20-point plan for a Gaza ceasefire. Hamas has reacted positively but has indicated that it will need to renegotiate parts of the plan. This has set the cat among the pigeons. Mr. Trump has hailed this as an opportunity to bring peace to West Asia while Israel is unhappy with the conditions attached to Hamas’ acceptance.
India’s presence amid a broken template of geopolitics
It is time for India to punch its weight and enhance its global presence at a time when global geopolitics is being reset. But, as of now, it is not moving India’s way. Operation Sindoor was a reality check when many of India’s strategic partners were not willing to call out Pakistan for harbouring United Nations-sanctioned terrorist groups and terrorists.
A reset in West Asia, a ‘de-escalation’ for the world
West Asia has been reset with the bombing of Iran by Israel and the United States. It has been done with the tacit or open approval of almost all countries in the region and beyond. The Europeans have been their usual contradictory noisy self, but made no difference to what is unfolding in West Asia. Even Russia and China, which signed, with much fanfare, Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreements with Iran in January 2025 and March 2021 respectively, were silent spectators.
The fragmentation in the global fight against terror
The Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 has exposed, yet again, the fragmentation in the global fight against terror and Pakistan’s resort to terrorism when it fears normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. While a number of countries have condemned the Pahalgam attack, they have, at the same time, called upon India and Pakistan to exercise restraint.
The fragmentation in the global fight against terror
The Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 has exposed, yet again, the fragmentation in the global fight against terror and Pakistan’s resort to terrorism when it fears normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. While a number of countries have condemned the Pahalgam attack, they have, at the same time, called upon India and Pakistan to exercise restraint.
India’s geopolitical vision should be larger
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for their “noble mission” to end the fighting between Ukraine and Russia. This has brought cheer to Indians. But there is a question to be asked — Why has India refrained from playing a more active political role in regional and international conflicts around the world?
India’s geopolitical vision should be larger
9 hours ago India: Fatal crash into medical store leaves several severely injured, driver flees scene Panchkula, India - March 27, 2025 In a tragic accident, an overspeeding car rammed into a medical store, killing two people and injuring several others before the driver fled the scene. The crash occurred at a medical store in Panchkula district in northern India’s Haryana on the afternoon of March 27.
The right’s rise, Europe’s state of denial
Irony died a thousand deaths in the Munich Security Conference in Germany, that was held recently, and the United Nations General Assembly vote on Ukraine. A few days ago, in Saudi Arabia, the United States and Russia, led by their respective Foreign Ministers, had held bilateral discussions on the Ukraine war. The Ukrainians and Europeans were not invited since it was felt that they need not be included at this point.
The right’s rise, Europe’s state of denial
Irony died a thousand deaths in the Munich Security Conference in Germany, that was held recently, and the United Nations General Assembly vote on Ukraine. A few days ago, in Saudi Arabia, the United States and Russia, led by their respective Foreign Ministers, had held bilateral discussions on the Ukraine war. The Ukrainians and Europeans were not invited since it was felt that they need not be included at this point.
A surge in radical governments, the hope of democracy
One thing seems fairly certain now. If an Islamic radical group were to seize power by force, then the world will be willing to legitimise it and forgive its past deeds. But till the time such a group does not capture power, it will either be fought tooth and nail and/or treated like an enemy. We had Afghanistan in 2021. We now have Syria in 2024.
India’s neighbourhood watch, past and present
While India’s neighbourhood seems to be in disarray, there are times when the country indulges in unwarranted self-flagellation if things go wrong primarily because it credits itself a bit too much in its ability to determine the outcome of events in its neighbourhood. Change in a short span Nearly 16 years ago, between 2008-10, in a span of just three years, epoch-making events unfolded in India’s neighbourhood, ushering in democracy and promising much.
New Delhi and the pursuit of reformed multilateralism
Multilateralism is in crisis. With every turn of events, multilateral systems and international organizations are being debilitated, almost always at the expense of the Global South. The UN stands paralyzed. Even as, on the one hand, international laws and agreements are adopted to strengthen the rules-based international order, on the other hand they are being violated with impunity and without accountability. But the problem runs much deeper.
Change in Bangladesh, the challenges for India
With events in Bangladesh unfolding at a rapid pace, this writer recalls the events of February 2009 when (now former) Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced a major crisis within two months of her taking over. The mutiny of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary force, where the rebels took over the BDR’s headquarters in Dhaka, left 74 dead, out of whom 57 were army officers.
India and reformed multilateralism
By T.S. Tirumurti Multilateralism is in crisis. With every turn of events, multilateral systems and international organisations are being debilitated almost always at the cost of the Global South. The United Nations stands paralysed. Even as, on the one hand, international laws and agreements are adopted to strengthen the rules-based international order, on the other hand, these are being violated with impunity without accountability. But the problem is much deeper.
The importance of both Quad and BRICS
The Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Japan end-July, after a long gap of 10 months, comes at a time when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is paralysed and its reform nowhere in sight, international law is violated with impunity both in the Ukraine war and in the assault on Gaza by Israel, an axis of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran is gaining traction, and Chinese influence is growing not just in the Indo-Pacific, but elsewhere too.
The politics of humanitarian aid Original
When United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that “100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity” and that is the “first time an entire population has been so classified”, and, soon after, the U.S. Congress proceeds to stop funding till March 2025 to the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA (it is the only UN agency delivering lifesaving humanitarian aid to millions of Palestine refugees living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem,...
Geopolitics Today: The State of the World
Carnegie India is hosting a book talk of Crosswinds: Nehru, Zhou and the Anglo-American Competition over China by Vijay Gokhale, which will be followed by a panel discussion on “Geopolitics Today: The State of the World”. Crosswinds is an account of how the dynamics between America, Britain, and China shaped India's policy towards China in the decade after India's independence.
Rediscovering Palestinian statehood
The cat is out of the bag. Well, it has been out of the bag all the time but no one noticed it till now. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has not only declared publicly that for years he has been working against a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but he has also gone on to say that Israel needs “control over the entire area west of Jordan”. Does this sound familiar?
Christmas under the rubble in Bethlehem Original
News of continued bombings in Gaza killing more than 22,500 Palestinians and of Israeli raids in the West Bank killing more Palestinians, as well as the cancellation of Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, brought back memories of my life in Gaza between 1996 and 1998. A difficult existence The Palestinian chauffeur who worked in the Representative Office of India to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza had no permit to leave Gaza.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is at bend point
As I watch the television and see Gaza being pulverised, I am informed that the apartment building I had lived in for two years in Gaza, between 1996-98, was bombed and brought down two weeks earlier. It was one of the taller buildings and I knew it did not stand a chance anyway. I keep wondering what has happened to my friends in Gaza, especially my landlord, Abu Zakary, and his lovely family and children, who made my life so much easier in a non-family posting. Are they still alive?
Concluding on a high note, in Manhattan
India concluded its eighth stint in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at the end of December 2022. And, by any yardstick, its two-year stint has been unprecedented. It has been my privilege to serve as India’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative in the Council for 18 out of the 24 months. I arrived in New York in May 2020, on a relief flight, when COVID-19 was at its peak, only to find the empty roads of Manhattan. The UN had begun conducting its sessions virtually.
The West is backsliding on climate action
Western nations have started reinterpreting the Paris deal and look to downgrade their commitments Western nations have started reinterpreting the Paris deal and look to downgrade their commitments Countries in Europe led by Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are cranking up their coal plants again. Coal exports to Europe are surging. Fossil fuels are making a comeback and countries are rejecting the European Union (EU)’s plan to reduce natural gas consumption by 15%.
The West is backsliding on climate action
Western nations have started reinterpreting the Paris deal and look to downgrade their commitments Western nations have started reinterpreting the Paris deal and look to downgrade their commitments Countries in Europe led by Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are cranking up their coal plants again. Coal exports to Europe are surging. Fossil fuels are making a comeback and countries are rejecting the European Union (EU)’s plan to reduce natural gas consumption by 15%.
We didn't hesitate to express views firmly in UNSC: India's representative to UN
IT HAS BEEN A YEAR since India took its place in the Security Council for the eighth time as an elected member. But certain things have not changed. The pandemic is still raging. The world remains divided and polarised on issues of global importance. Conflicts on the agenda of the Council have persisted and new ones have emerged. Terrorism has not only continued unabated but expanded its tentacles to new areas, especially in Africa.
India’s presidency of the UNSC fortified our role in world affairs
India has just concluded its presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for August. It was a remarkable month. What was supposed to be a calm August turned out to be one of the busiest and probably most productive. We managed to achieve almost all of what we set out for, and also successfully handled the expected and unexpected challenges that came our way. During our presidency, we had 14 ‘outcome documents’, five of which were UNSC resolutions.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with T.S.
Contact T.S., search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack