For nearly four decades, Manish Tewari has watched the international order evolve—from the Cold War era uncertainty to the present-day fragmentation and disorder. A lawyer, former Union Minister, and three-term Member of Parliament, Tewari was in Prague / Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and has since witnessed India’s foreign policy debates from close quarters.
Those experiences form the backbone of his latest book, A World Adrift: A Parliamentarian’s Perspective on Global Power Dynamics, a much-needed analysis of geopolitical transition, technological disruption, and the growing uncertainty of the international system.
Tewari has long engaged with questions of foreign policy, national security, and global affairs through writing. His earlier books include 10 Flashpoints; 20 Years: National Security Situations That Impacted India (2025), The Fables of Fractured Times (2019), and Tidings of Troubled Times (2017). A recurring theme across his writing is how political uncertainty and strategic change are reshaping both India and the wider world.
In this conversation with India’s World, Tiwari speaks candidly about the decline of American primacy, the rise of China, the meaning of strategic autonomy, and why “memes can be as dangerous as missiles.” What emerges is less the voice of a politician performing expertise and more that of an observer who has spent decades thinking through the changing nature of power.
