Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ranjan Solomon
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Iran, Trump, and the cracks in American power
If there is one thing that now appears irreversible, it is that Iran did not lose this war and that the United States and Israel have collectively looked irrational and overconfident in their predictions. The assumption that overwhelming military pressure would quickly subdue Tehran has not materialised. Instead, the conflict…
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Iran refuses to kneel: Why the US cannot dictate peace
War rarely ends when one side declares victory. It ends when both sides conclude that continuing the conflict costs more than compromise. The current confrontation between the United States and Iran has now reached precisely that dangerous threshold. What began as a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Tehran is slowly…
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The illusion of controlled war
As of May 2026, the U.S. approach to international conflict is characterized by a high-stakes, transactional balancing act – using aggressive, limited military actions (“maximum pressure”) while simultaneously attempting to avoid full-scale, direct war. The multiple dimensions of U.S. escalation management include various key factors: One of USA’s calculated military…
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Iran does not stand alone – China and Russia create restraint
China, and Russia do not stand aside; they hold the war in deliberate abeyance add solidarity and deterrence. What appears as support is, more precisely, structured pre-emption against reckless US escalation. The United States is compelled to calculate against a dispersed but formidable alignment of power. The ongoing war is…
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Power, justice, and the decolonization of the global order
The end of the unipolar illusion Three decades after the end of the Cold War, the global order that emerged in its aftermath is visibly fraying. What was once proclaimed as a stable “rules-based international system” dominated by the United States and its Western allies now appears fragile, contested, and…
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Lebanon after the ceasefire – Power recalibrated, law further eroded
“Pity the nation that is divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.” The ceasefire in Lebanon is not a diplomatic success. It is a political admission. What has unfolded in recent months has forced a reckoning long deferred: the limits of American power, the vulnerability of Israeli military…
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When hegemony reaches its limits
The ceasefire between the United States and Iran is being interpreted through sharply contested narratives. Tehran has described it as an “unconditional surrender” by Washington – a claim that, while rhetorically charged, draws attention to a deeper structural reality: the inability of a dominant power to translate coercive intent into…
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The gallows of occupation: Law as execution in Israel’s apartheid state
The recent enactment of capital punishment legislation by the Knesset is not a mere domestic legal development. It is an act that demands examination under the most serious categories of international law. When a state creates a legal pathway to execute a specific, occupied population through a system structurally incapable…
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No apologies – Naming Zionism for what it is
“A people that oppresses another cannot itself be free” -Friedrich Engels – Zionism is racism. I state this plainly, not as a slogan designed to provoke, but as a conclusion drawn from history, lived reality, and the political structure that has emerged in what is now called Israel. I am not…
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Dominance without legitimacy in a changing world: The decline of American power
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed in an Al Jazeera interview that messages have been exchanged with the United States during the ongoing conflict, but clarified that these do not constitute formal negotiations. Araghchi cited a deep lack of trust, rooted in Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, and…
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Why is Iran being singled out while others escape scrutiny: Erase nuclear apartheid
“The world cannot preach non-proliferation while practising selective permission. That is not law – it is hierarchy.” The global discourse on nuclear weapons has drifted far from its stated goal of disarmament. What remains today is not a principled framework for peace, but a deeply unequal system of control –…
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Iran holds the keys to victory in the war with USA and Israel
“We do not choose between empires -we choose dignity, sovereignty, and freedom.” (Soekarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independence) As of March 25-26, 2026, Iran has rejected U.S. proposals to end the conflict, instead outlining five key conditions, as reported by Iranian state media and Iranian Embassy in South Africa.…
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Water on the brink: A warning to the Gulf in an age of American militarism
The warning issued by Iran—that desalination infrastructure across the Gulf could become a target if conflict escalates—must not be dismissed as rhetorical excess. It is, instead, a stark signal of how far the region has drifted into a dangerous architecture of dependency and exposure. At stake is not merely infrastructure,…
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Power without exit – America’s strategic trap in the Strait of Hormuz
The United States today finds itself ensnared in a war it cannot win, yet cannot leave. What appears, at first glance, as a familiar display of military dominance in West Asia is, in fact, a deeper crisis of strategy, legitimacy, and control. The conflict involving the United States, Israel, and…
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Bedouin communities – Dispossession and entrapment
As the war in Gaza continues to devastate Palestinian life, and the ongoing confrontation involving Iran, Israel, and the United States deepens regional instability, another quieter tragedy unfolds on the margins of the conflict. The Bedouins – long-standing desert communities whose lives have been intertwined with the fragile ecosystems of…
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Annexation without a declaration- Israel’s quiet seizure of the West Bank
Israel has not formally declared the annexation of the occupied West Bank. No dramatic parliamentary vote has proclaimed sovereignty over the territory. Yet on the ground, step by step, law by law, road by road, Israel is doing precisely that. Through administrative restructuring, settlement expansion, legal engineering and the steady…
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Even off-hand talk about Israel’s nuclear option is obscene
The “real” chances of a nuclear hit-back from Israel, driven by desperation in an existential crisis, are generally considered low due to conventional military superiority and US backing, but are not zero. Such a move is associated with the Samson Option – an unconfirmed, last-resort doctrine of massive retaliation, named after…
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Governance in the rubble – why Hamas still holds Gaza
A recent Reuters investigation citing internal Israeli military assessments offers an unexpected snapshot of post-war Gaza administration – one that complicates the official narrative of Hamas’ dismantlement. This is a snapshot of post-war Gaza administration. Hamas poses a structural contradiction at the heart of Washington and Tel Aviv’s political narrative.…
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Mojtaba Khamenei and the meaning of revolutionary continuity
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the central figure in the country’s political and religious establishment since 1989, has died at the age of 86 after being killed in a coordinated joint military airstrike by the United States and Israel that struck his…
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India’s hyphenated ties with Israel betray its past stand for decolonization
India and Israel have cultivated a robust strategic partnership based on shared interests in defense, technology, agriculture, and counter-terrorism. Since normalizing relations in 1992, they have transitioned into key allies, with Israel becoming a top defense supplier and India emerging as a major market for Israeli technology, fostering a “special”…
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A stunted start marks the inaugural Board for Peace in Gaza
Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” inaugurated in early 2026 to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction and potentially supplant UN roles, began with low expectations and limited attendance, as many U.S. allies opted out. While 26 countries joined the charter, only 19 attended the initial, vaguely detailed meeting, which was criticized as a…
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From coercion to negotiation – Why Washington now sits across from Tehran
For years, Washington addressed Tehran through pressure. Sanctions were tightened layer upon layer. Naval deployments in the Gulf were amplified. Political rhetoric framed Iran as a state that would eventually yield under economic suffocation. The assumption was that sustained coercion would fracture internal stability and compel compliance. That expectation has…
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Israel’s not-so-subtle annexation plans in the West Bank
Israel’s latest moves in the occupied West Bank are not being framed in dramatic language inside the country. There has been no formal declaration of annexation, no parliamentary ceremony proclaiming sovereignty over the hills and valleys east of the Green Line. Instead, the changes have come through cabinet decisions, legal…
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Gaza’s Rafah gate opens under tight Israeli restrictions
As of early February 2026, the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has partially reopened for the first time in nearly two years, allowing a very restricted number of people to pass through under stringent Israeli supervision. Initially only five to fifteen patients were allowed to leave for…