A 2025 PODCAST FROM THE BRITISH COUNCIL ON SOFT POWER:
SELECTED OP EDS & COMMENTARIES
“US Republicans lost in Germany’s elections.” The Hill. February 26, 2025. (With Maximilian Mayer)
“Lessons in foreign aid from a trip to Uganda.” The Hill. February 21, 2025
“Trump’s tariffs are economic nonsense, but far-right culture war catnip.” The Hill, February 5, 2025
“What left-wing intellectuals don’t understand about Trump’s victory.” The Hill, November 11, 2024.
The November 11, 2024 Hill article above led to an Interview on Fortune TV:
“Deutschland kann Krise – aber auch KI?” Tagesspiegel. September 6, 2021.
“Digital India Or Not, the Babu’s Love for Frustrating Rules and Procedures Continues.” 21 August 2021. The Wire.
“Can Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala revitalise the WTO?” March 2021. African Business
“Renewing Multilateralism with Cultural Values.” Robert Bosch Academy Perspectives. October 2020.
“‘The soul’ versus ‘law and order’.” 2 September 2020. The Hill.
“Time to unite behind an African candidate to lead WTO.” August 2020. African Business Magazine.
“Two Women from Africa are Among the Leading Candidates to Head the WTO.” The Monkey Cage. Washington Post. 20 July 2020.
“In WTO’s Search for its Next Director-General, a Tale of Proxy Wars and Regional Rivalries.” The Wire. 12 July 2020.
An interview with National Public Radio (NPR) here on the WTO Director-General selection.
“Race, Racism, and International Relations.” Duck of Minerva. 25 June 2020.
“How Technology, Culture, and Trade Intersect in International Commerce and Policy.” Blog Entry. Schar School of Policy and Government. 2019.
“Time to defend liberal world order from the threat of fragmentation.” Op. ed. The Herald. 27 January 2017.
“Understanding the Orlando Tragedy Through Contexts of Culture, Religion and Rejection.” The Wire. June 20, 2016.
“Controversial TPP is as Much About Trade as About Foreign Policy Goals,” The Wire. Available at: October 12, 2015
“The Loss of a Paradise Overtaken by Vandals.” The Wire. July 24, 2015.
“Plaint of a gay husband: We long for the day when Rashtrapati Bhavan will bathe in a rangoli of rainbows.” The Times of India. June 30, 2015.
“The Land of Milk and Cotton: How U.S. Protectionism Distorts Global Trade. Foreign Affairs. October 23, 2014.
“India’s multi-faceted WTO Refusal.” The Monkey Cage. The Washington Post. August 5, 2014.
“The Dynamics Between Intercultural Communication and Development.” Intercultural Management Quarterly. Winter 2004.
2009: Interviewing Roopal Shah as Guest Host for Darshan TV on her development work in India:
My own expert interviews to media include those for African Eye Report, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CCTV, Christian Science Monitor, Kojo Namdi Show, Korea Broadcast Service Radio, NPR, and Voice of America.
I began writing on arts and political economy in college. An avid writer, I trained to be a journalist and film critic at Mumbai’s Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC) and Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). My first article appeared in The Evening New of India in 1982 – an essay on two Mumbai artists: the celebrated poet Eunice De Souza, and pianist Olga Craen, a child prodigy from India & a prize winner at Long-Thibaud-Crespin competition in Paris in the 1940s. [Full disclosure: I studied literature with Eunice & piano with Olga.] From, 1982-84, I edited a magazine called “Apparel” for the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India. Textiles and garments were India’s biggest manufactured exports (after processed diamonds).