Speakers
Hormuz is unlikely to return to its old, quiet status.
The US-Israeli war on Iran rewrote the rules of West Asian geopolitics faster than anyone expected. Iran emerged battered but unbroken, weaponising the Hormuz Strait for the first time and exposing the real limits of American power in the region. The ceasefire will not undo the strain it placed on the US-Israel relationship, nor the fault lines it cracked open between Washington and its NATO allies.
India was never a combatant, and arguably better placed than most to mediate, yet chose not to. Pakistan, by contrast, used the moment to project itself internationally, with real consequences for how India-Pakistan relations are read abroad. The war has also put energy security back on the table for the first time since 1973.
Ranjan Mathai and T.S. Tirumurti, two of India’s most experienced West Asia hands, join editor and commentator K.S. Dakshinamurthy to unpack what changed, what did not, and what it means for Indian foreign policy going forward.
In collaboration with:
Read more about the Deccan Centre here.
Venue: Auditorium
Speakers
Ranjan Mathai
Ranjan Mathai served as Foreign Secretary of India from 2011 to 2013, capping a career in the Indian Foreign Service that began in 1974. He was Ambassador of India to Israel, Qatar, and France, and later High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2015. He holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Pune and is an alumnus of the National Defence College, Delhi. He now works as an analyst and commentator on international affairs and energy security.
T S Tirumurti
T S Tirumurti served in the Indian Foreign Service for 37 years, from 1985 to 2022. He was Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and India’s BRICS Sherpa. From 2020 to 2022, he served as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, holding the UN Security Council presidency in August 2021. His postings included Cairo, Geneva, Gaza, Washington D.C., and Jakarta, and he served as High Commissioner to Malaysia and India’s first Representative to the Palestinian Authority. At the MEA, he headed the UN Division and the Division for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Myanmar. He now heads the Steering Committee at Chennai’s Deccan Centre for International Relations, is Distinguished Professor at IIT Madras, sits on the Board of Governors of Dhirubhai Ambani University, and has authored three books.
Dakshina Murthy K S
Dakshina Murthy was part of the editorial team that launched Al Jazeera‘s English-language website in 2003. He is Managing Editor at The Federal and writes for prominent publications in India and abroad. He is the author of the novel The Anopheles Sting, published by Dronequill in 2013.
