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.
Share confidential news tips with The Post
Latest from Ishaan Tharoor

Is Israel deploying a ‘surrender or starve’ strategy in Gaza?

A new phase of the war may be underway, as hopes for a cease-fire and deal to release the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity wane.

October 14, 2024
A woman holds a child in Gaza City on Saturday.

Israel steps up its battles with the United Nations

Israel’s war of words with the United Nations escalated this week when Israeli forces fired on three positions in Lebanon manned by U.N. peacekeepers.

October 11, 2024
Members of the United Nations peacekeepers mission, UNIFIL, look at the Lebanese-Israeli border as they stand on the roof of a watch tower ‏in the town of Marwahin, in southern Lebanon in 2023.

How Netanyahu shattered Biden’s Middle East hopes

The Israeli prime minister tested and bested President Joe Biden’s diplomatic strategy around the growing conflict in the Middle East.

October 9, 2024
President Joe Biden shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on July 25.

The world’s mayors want to change the conversation on migration

“I see politicians trying to use the situation to advance their political position,” said the mayor of Bogotá, Colombia. “But this doesn’t solve the problems we actually have.”

October 4, 2024
Venezuelan migrant Katerine Valero, 29, and her children rest outside a strip mall in Bogotá, Colombia, in February 2021.

As war expands, Netanyahu thinks he’s winning

The dramatic, incendiary developments of recent days come at a possible turning point for Israel’s wily prime minister — and for the region.

October 1, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 27.

Israel takes the hammer to Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’

Israel has plunged Hezbollah into disarray and decapitated its leadership. How Iran will react is an open question.

September 30, 2024
A view shows the damage at the site of the Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah on Friday in Beirut's southern suburbs.

At the U.N., overwhelming anger at Israel

At the United Nations, world leaders cast Israel’s heavy-handed campaigns in Gaza and the inability of the U.N. system to rein it as a danger to the institution itself.

September 27, 2024
A woman stands near a representation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Pro-Palestinian protesters rally against Israel's strikes on Gaza and Lebanon in New York.

Biden walks off the U.N. stage, leaving behind a world in ‘purgatory’

In his last speech from the dais of the U.N. General Assembly, Biden highlighted his efforts to resolve the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Others remain skeptical.

September 24, 2024
President Joe Biden after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

World leaders gather at a U.N. desperate to save itself

Ongoing crises in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine have underscored the inefficacy of the world’s foremost decision-making body. Great power competition may be to blame.

September 23, 2024
António Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, speaks to the United Nations General Assembly during the Summit for the Future on Sunday at U.N. headquarters.

A broader Israel-Lebanon war now seems inevitable

This week’s pager explosions in Lebanon represent a tactical victory for Israel. They also appear likely to lock the region into an escalatory spiral.

September 20, 2024
Mourners carry coffins of victims who were killed Tuesday after their handheld pagers exploded, during their funeral procession in the southern suburb of Beirut on Wednesday.