Ishaan Tharoor, the Washington Post’s international affairs columnist and one of the most widely read voices on global politics, has delivered a series of sharp, widely discussed assessments in the opening weeks of 2026. Through columns, podcast episodes of “The World” (co-hosted with David Rothkopf), a high-profile virtual lecture at the Council on Foreign Relations and a panel appearance at the Munich Security Conference, Tharoor has offered a clear-eyed, often sobering diagnosis of the world at the midpoint of the decade.