Ishaan Tharoor

Washington, D.C.

Foreign affairs columnist and anchor of Today's WorldView, the Post's daily column and newsletter on global politics

Education: Yale University, BA, honors in history and ethnicity, race and migration

Ishaan Tharoor is a columnist on the foreign desk of The Washington Post, where he authors the Today's WorldView newsletter and column. In 2021, he won the Arthur Ross Media Award in Commentary, a prize administered by the American Academy of Diplomacy. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. He also periodically teaches an undergraduate seminar at Georgetown University on digital affairs and the global age.
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Latest from Ishaan Tharoor

Afghan women endure draconian Taliban, 23 years after 9/11

The plight of Afghanistan’s women in 2024 provides a grim coda to the saga of the U.S.’s role in the country since 2001. It’s a tale of tragedy and hubris, misadventures and corruption, and — in the final, bleak reckoning — a tale of failure.

September 11, 2024
Afghan women travel on the back of a local taxi in Kandahar on Monday.

Israeli snipers again face scrutiny after death of civilian

Witnesses say the Israel Defense Forces fatally shot Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old American volunteer in the West Bank. The IDF said it was “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area.”

September 9, 2024
Palestinians and international activists inside the morgue Sunday where the body of slain Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi is being kept, in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Germany’s firewall against the far right isn’t working

Recent elections in Germany show the limits of the nation’s statist efforts to stamp out far-right extremism and ultranationalism.

September 6, 2024
Protesters demonstrate against the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) after first exit polls in the Thuringia state elections in Erfurt, Germany, on Sept. 1. (Christian Mang/Reuters)

Netanyahu still wants more war

The Israeli leader’s critics argue he would rather prolong the war to assuage his far-right allies (and keep hold of power) than clinch a deal that stops hostilities and frees the remaining hostages.

September 4, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at news conference Monday. In a speech that day, he asked for forgiveness from the families of hostages, but doubled down on his vow to continue the war.

What Ukraine’s Kursk incursion means for the war with Russia

Ukraine is hoping for an escape to victory.

August 30, 2024
A soldier walks in the Ukraine-controlled city of Sudzha on Aug. 18, in Kursk Region, Russia.

A month after Venezuela’s contested election, the opposition fights on

The opposition in Venezuela and its supporters have stood courageously, but risk being muffled by the Maduro regime’s suppression.

August 28, 2024
Opposition leader María Corina Machado waves a Venezuelan flag during a protest in Caracas on Aug. 17.

A glimpse of the new ‘Great Game’ between the U.S. and China

The competition between the United States and China has seen geopolitical and economic flash points sprawl across continents.

August 26, 2024
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, fourth left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, fifth right, attend a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Aug. 20.

The war in Gaza passes a bleak, bloody milestone

Health authorities in Gaza say the death toll in the territory has surpassed 40,000 people. Meanwhile, Israel has stepped up its de facto capture of Palestinian land in the West Bank.

August 16, 2024
A Palestinian prepares a grave in a cemetery as the death toll in Gaza surpasses 40,000, according to the local health ministry's records.

Ukraine turns the tables on Russia

A bold Ukrainian operation in Kursk has humiliated Russian President Vladimir Putin and upended some of the logic of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

August 14, 2024
Ukrainian soldiers pose for a picture as they repair a military vehicle near the Russian border on Sunday.

Israeli leaders keep saying the quiet part out loud

Israel is frequently shielded from censure on the global stage by Western powers whose arguments defending Israel get undercut by Israeli officials themselves.

August 12, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a weekly cabinet meeting in January.