Global Faultlines

Since October 7, West Asia has witnessed a cascade of crises, from the war in Gaza, attacks on Red Sea shipping, to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and direct military confrontation between Israel and Iran. Together, these events have reshaped the region's geopolitical landscape. For India, the stakes are particularly high. New Delhi has spent years cultivating close ties with Israel, Iran,...

The Iran-Israel-U.S. war may have ended with a ceasefire, but many of the questions that drove the conflict remain unresolved. After months of direct confrontation involving Iran, Israel and the United States, the region is taking stock of a war that raised fears of a wider regional conflict, disrupted global energy markets and brought renewed attention to Iran's nuclear programme. What did the wa...

The October 7 attacks triggered a wave of changes across West Asia, transforming conflicts, alliances, and the balance of power in the region. What began as a war in Gaza soon expanded into a wider regional crisis involving Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and the Gulf. In this episode of Global Faultlines, we examine how West Asia has changed over the past two years, from Israel’s evolving military s...

Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990, but many of the country’s deeper fault lines remained unresolved. In the decades that followed, Lebanon rebuilt its cities and economy, yet sectarian politics, weak institutions, and competing centres of power continued to shape the state. In this second and final part of our Lebanon series on Global Faultlines, we examine the events that pushed the country into...

Lebanon was once seen as a rare success story in West Asia, a country that appeared stable on the surface. However, beneath that image lay deep structural fault lines. In Part 1 of our Lebanon series at Global faultlines, we trace how a fragile post-independence system began to unravel. From the growing influence of Syria to the arrival of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Lebanon was steadil...

As tensions in West Asia spiral into one of the most dangerous confrontations in recent years, this episode of Global Faultlines breaks down the 2026 Iran–Israel–U.S. war, starting from the U.S.-led “Operation Epic Fury” and the killing of the former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Iran’s sweeping retaliation across the region. We trace the roots of the conflict back to the collapse of th...

The 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq marked a decisive break in the country’s modern history. It removed the regime of Saddam Hussein, but also dismantled the institutions that had held the state together. In the aftermath, decisions such as the dissolution of the Iraqi army and de-Baathification weakened state authority and contributed to a rapidly deteriorating security environment. Iraq soon desc...

Modern Iraq was not born in 2003. Its origins lie in the aftermath of the First World War, when the collapse of the Ottoman Empire led Britain to assemble a new state. The borders were drawn quickly. Building a stable political order proved far harder. Under the British Mandate, Iraq inherited centralised institutions that concentrated power but struggled to accommodate its ethnic and sectarian di...

In late December 2025, Iran was hit by a nationwide uprising triggered by the collapse of the Rial and deepening economic distress. What began as anger over inflation and currency instability quickly broadened into political demands, with protesters challenging the authority of the Islamic Republic. The state’s response was swift and forceful with mass arrests, reported fatalities, and a near-tota...

Saudi Arabia is recalibrating its role in a region defined by protracted wars, shifting alliances, and declining faith in military solutions. After years of assertive intervention, Riyadh has begun to pull back from direct confrontation, opting instead for diplomacy, de-escalation, and strategic hedging. The Yemen war exposed the costs of prolonged conflict, while attacks on Saudi oil facilities u...

Saudi Arabia emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire not as a colonial creation, but through conquest and consolidation, anchored in an alliance between political power and religious authority. This distinct origin shaped how the kingdom understood sovereignty, security, and its role in the regional order. Oil transformed Saudi Arabia into a global energy power and, during the Cold War, ti...

The Islamic State emerged from years of war, political collapse, and sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria. Shaped by the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the group evolved from a local insurgency into the most powerful jihadist organisation of its time.  By 2014, ISIS controlled major cities, erased borders, and declared a caliphate. It governed territo...

By 2015, Syria’s civil war had reached a turning point. Russian military intervention reversed the regime’s fortunes, Iran entrenched itself through militias and economic networks, and the armed opposition steadily lost ground. ISIS was eventually defeated territorially, but its presence — and the conditions that enabled it — did not disappear. As active frontlines stabilised, Syria entered a new...

On March 15, 2011, a small protest in Daraa ignited what would become one of the 21st century’s deadliest conflicts. But Syria’s crisis didn’t start overnight. Decades of authoritarian rule, sectarian tensions, and political repression had already set the stage. The Assad family’s iron grip on power, combined with economic stagnation and deep social divides, left the country fragile. When peaceful...

After the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan became the frontline of America’s “War on Terror.” The U.S. invasion in 2001 aimed to dismantle al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban, but the mission quickly expanded into a far more ambitious nation-building project. Over two decades, billions were spent and new institutions were created. Yet corruption, weak governance, and a resilient Taliban insurgency steadily u...

The Taliban emerged in the mid-1990s amid the instability that followed the Soviet withdrawal and the civil war that devastated Afghanistan. Promising to restore order and justice, the movement drew support from war-weary Afghans and backing from sections of Pakistan’s military establishment. By 1996, it had captured Kabul and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban’s rule brought...

Afghanistan has long held a pivotal place in regional geopolitics, its strategic location making it a prize and a battleground for competing powers. From the 19th-century “Great Game” between Britain and Russia to the Cold War proxy wars of the 20th century, external influence has continuously shaped its trajectory. Following independence in 1919, successive governments sought to modernise while b...

Iran today stands at a crossroads, acting as both a stabilising and destabilising force in one of the world’s most volatile regions. Its influence extends through a network of allies and proxies, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Houthis in Yemen, while its diplomatic and strategic moves continue to draw global attention. In this second part of our two-part series on Iran, we examine the country’s...

Iran has been a key force in East Asian politics for decades, influencing regional conflicts, global diplomacy, and international security. From the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mossadegh to the transformative 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s history has shaped a political system that blends elected institutions with the authority of a Supreme Leader. In this first part of our two-part series o...

In the first two episodes of this three-part series, we traced the roots of the Israel–Palestine question - from the legacies of colonialism and partition in 1948 to the cycles of displacement, violence, and negotiations that followed. In this third and final episode, we shift the lens to the present, asking how the rest of the world is responding to a crisis that refuses to fade.  While the Unite...

In the previous episode, we revisited the history of the Israel Palestine conflict, until the creation of Israel in 1948. However, 1948 was not the end, but the beginning of a turbulent new chapter in the region. In the decades that followed, the region was repeatedly reshaped by wars, occupations, and resistance. Borders shifted, cities changed hands, and generations came of age knowing little be...

Why does the Israel–Palestine conflict remain one of the most intractable crises of our time? To understand today’s headlines, we need to go back to where it all began. In the launch episode of Global Faultlines, we trace the roots of the conflict up to the creation of Israel in 1948. The discussion unpacks the competing nationalisms, religious significance of the land, colonial interventions, and...

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