My opinion piece in the New Indian Express on the predicament of the so-called ‘middle powers’ in the emerging world order — all dressed up and nowhere to go.

The middling predicament of middle powers

M K Bhadrakumar

The New Indian Express, October 22, 2022

One must be singularly fortunate to get to witness history in the making. As the centuries-old epoch of Western domination is ending and drifting away, a new era is taking shape. Coping with such epochal change is never easy for any country. Unsurprisingly, against such a tumultuous backdrop, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is back with his abacus to prophesy that India’s interests are best aligned with the ‘middle powers’, a presumptuous inchoate coinage at best of free-riders. Why should India have an identity crisis when it is wearing a custom-made mantle of Global South leadership?

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinion/2026/Oct/21/the-middling-predicament-of-middle-powers