Strategic Conundrums: Reshaping India’s Foreign Policy

The book examines India’s current and looming foreign policy challenges from a strategic and policy-oriented perspective. It analyzes the long-term factors and trends that should determine the country’s foreign policy formulation. The author urges a reappraisal of India’s approach if it is to become a major player in the complex and rapidly evolving 21st century world.

Strategic Conundrums: Rethinking India’s Foreign Policy focuses on India’s immediate and strategic neighborhood. It also looks at important issues like energy security, economic diplomacy, the interaction between defense and diplomacy, and foreign policy institutions. A unique feature of the book is that it combines the perspectives of a historian, a diplomat and a scholar. With many new out-of-the-box ideas and policy suggestions, it makes a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate on foreign policy within India’s strategic community.

This lucid and succinct book is a must-read for policy-makers, diplomats and foreign policy analysts. The corporate and business community too will find it professionally relevant. It is also an important knowledge resource for students of Indian politics, international relations, and defense and strategic studies, and others who are interested in India’s foreign policy.

Rajiv Sikri was a career diplomat for more than 36 years with the Indian Foreign Service. He retired in 2006 as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. In this capacity he had overall responsibility for India’s relations with East Asia, ASEAN, Pacific region, the Arab world, Israel, Iran and Central Asia. Earlier he was special secretary for economic relations supervising foreign economic relations, including India’s external technical and economic assistance programmes. He has served as India’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, and headed the departments dealing with West Europe as well as the Soviet Union and East Europe in the Ministry of External Affairs. His other diplomatic assignments abroad include deputy chief of mission in Paris, political counsellor in Moscow, deputy consul general and commercial consul in New York, and political first secretary in Kathmandu.

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