Indian Foreign Office

Foreign Offices are similar

Foreign Office as a window to another country and civilisation

India

• A classical civilization 
• 3000 year recorded history 
• 2 of 5 great religions are Indian 
• Dramatically transformed in last 60 years 
• Enormous contrasts 

By 2020, combined output of the three leading South economies—China, India, Brazil—will surpass the aggregate production of the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada.

“The rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale. Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast.”

China and India doubled per capita economic output in less than 20 years—a rate twice as fast as that during the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America. “The Industrial Revolution was a story of perhaps a hundred million people, but this is a story about billions of people"

Coexistence in a spectrum

• Poverty, Growth and Riches
• Middle Ages to Modern
• Mars rocket to bullock wagons
• Illiteracy to software giant

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MEA Structure and Functions

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Global diplomatic footprint

• 110 Diplomatic Missions - Bilateral and Multilateral 
• 50 Consulates General 
• Honorary Consulates

150 Embassies in New Delhi

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How do we spend money

What do we do?

POLITICAL PRIORITIES (MEA ANNUAL REPORT)

• NEIGHBOURHOOD  (Af-Pak, Iran, China)
• STRATEGIC  PARTNERSHIP WITH US, CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN, KOREA, EU
• EXTENDED NEIGHBOURHOOD - ASEAN, WEST ASIA
• AFRICA
• INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

Emerging market

Trade

Terrorsim

Conflict

International Organisations

International regimes

Keep in touch

Agree

India-China Agreements signed yesterday

• Investments in Roads, Railways
• Space, Sattelites
• Industrial Areas
• Customs Cooperation
• Cultural exchanges 

Summits

Outreach, media

Development Cooperation

Diaspora

Humanitarian operations

Cultural diplomacy, Soft power

Major functions of an Embassy

• Political
• Economic and Commercial, Technology
• Consular
• Culture, Media, Public diplomacy
• Military cooperation

Emerging functions

• Law enforcement cooperation
• Diaspora
• Development cooperation

Transitions

• Look East,  Multilateralism
• New subjects - terrorism, health, energy, food, cyber
• Poor to middle class, growth of national power
• Open diplomacy, Non-state actors, Social media, Technology
• International regimes - global commons, economic regimes HR standards

Differences

• Wealth, power
• Global role, reach and aspirations
• Parliamentary vs Presidential government
• Oldest democracy vs largest democracy
• Neutral vs committed bureaucracy

Structural differences

• 90% Ambassadors career diplomats. Head of IFS is second only to Minister.
• Parliament not involved in appointment of Ambassadors and Ratifications
• Relatively few Special Envoys or Special Representatives 
• Flat decision-making structure. 

Special features of Indian diplomacy

The Indian Foreign Service

A true elite

• 15 out of 3,oo,000
• Rigorously trained
• Confucian mandarin
• A President, 2 Vice Presidents

No frills foreign policy, sober, sensible and furgal

Indian philosophical tradition

Ashok

"After the Kalingas were conquered, Beloved-of-the-Gods [Ashoka] came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dharma, a love for the Dharma... Now Beloved-of-the-Gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas".

The King has caused this Dhamma edict to be written. In my domain no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice. Nor should festivals be held, for Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, sees much to object to in such festivals.
Formerly, in the kitchen of Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, hundreds of thousands of animals were killed every day to make curry. But now with the writing of this Dhamma edict only three creatures, two peacocks and a deer are killed, and the deer not always. And in time, not even these three creatures will be killed.

"He was successful in his military operations and—alone among conquerors—he was so disgusted by the cruelty and horror of war that he renounced it. He would have no more of it. He adopted the peaceful doctrines of Buddhism and declared that henceforth his conquests should be the conquests of religion."

"In the history of the world there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves 'their highnesses', 'their majesties', 'their exalted majesties' and so on. They shone for a brief moment, and as quickly disappeared. But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star, even unto this day."

"His reign for eight-and-twenty years was one of the brightest interludes in the troubled history of mankind."He was already famous in Buddhist China (as King Wuyou) in the centuries after his death in c.232BC. He was the first ruler to unify the subcontinent; he was also probably the first in the world to establish a welfare state and the first to become an apostle of non-violence.

Chanakya

Is there any other book that talks so openly about when using violence is justified? When assassinating an enemy is useful? When killing domestic opponents is wise? How one uses secret agents? When one needs to sacrifice one's own secret agent? How the king can use women and children as spies and even assassins? When a nation should violate a treaty and invade its neighbor? Kautilya addresses all those questions. In what cases must a king spy on his own people? How should a king test his ministers, even his own family members, to see if they are worthy of trust? When must a king kill a prince, his own son, who is heir to the throne? How does one protect a king from poison? What precautions must a king take against assassination by one's own wife? When is it appropriate to arrest a troublemaker on suspicion alone? When is torture justified?
Is there not one question that Kautilya found immoral, too terrible to ask in a book? No, not one. And this is what brings a frightful chill. But this is also why Kautilya was the first great, unrelenting political realist.

The Indian tradition

Not afraid to be alone or unpopular

Challenges

• What kind of world order?
• Look inward or outward?
• Do we want to be leaders?
• Immediate vs important

NORMATIVE DILEMMA

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Priorities?

Poverty

A seat at the high table?

How do we use our growing strength?

COMPLAINTS AGAINST FOREIGN OFFICE

• Closed, stratified, no revolving-door, inbred
• Lacks capacity
• Short-staffed
• Limiting India's emergence as a great power
• The Indian Foreign Service 

Equal opportunity employer

The Minister

The Foreign Secretary

Not strictly diplomatic

Nalanda and south asian universities

"Strategic" culture

24 hour news cycle

Domestic policy is foreign policy

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