Negotiating for India: Resolving Problems Through Diplomacy - Seven Case Studies, 1958-1978 - Hardcover

Mehta, Jagat S

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8173046727 ISBN 13: 9788173046728

Publisher: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2006

Synopsis

This book is a chronological compilation of the author's diplomatic experiences when, during his Foreign Service career, he was involved in seven unconnected negotiating responsibilities. No other officer was entrusted with comparable burdens but he acknowledges that they came to him by bureaucratic happen-stance. In the first three -- accompanying Nehru to Bhutan (1958), leading the official team for India-China Boundary talks (1960), negotiating compensation for Indians expelled by Idi Amins' Uganda (1975) -- he was only a secretariat official. During the last four -- normalising relations with Pakistan and negotiating Salal hydro-electric project on a Pakistani' river (1976), Farakka negotiations with Bangladesh (1977), and separating Trade and Transit with Nepal (1978) -- he was the Foreign Secretary which enabled him to recommend improvisations to resolve inherited deadlocks. Most negotiations were with unequal neighbours, which required anticipating the perceptions (and misperceptions) of the sovereign partners. Suspicions -- justified or exaggerated -- of coercion and hegemonism had to be assuaged. Mehta also recalls the personalities of select colleagues and negotiating opposite numbers, the ablest amongst whom was Chang-wen-chin, his Chinese counterpart. According to Mehta duelling all day intellectually but toasting each other's nations after sundown, symbolises the unique calling of professional diplomacy.

About this title

About the Author

Jagat S. Mehta was Foreign Secretary, Government of India, during 1976-79 appointed at a comparative young age of 53. After retirement, his primary interest has been in voluntarism for social and economic development. However, he has woven these with spells in academia. He was an Associate at Harvard Centre for International Affairs in 1980, Fellow at Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington in 1981 and appointed Tom Slick Distinguished Professor of World Peace in Austin (Texas) in 1983. His predecessor in this chair included Nobel Laureates Gunnar and Alva Myrdal. He is the author of The March of Folly in Afghanistan (1978-2001), Manohar, 2002; and the editor of Third World Militarization: A Challenge to Third World Diplomacy, LBJ School of Public Affairs, 1985.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manohar Publishers and Distributors
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8173046727
• ISBN 13: 9788173046728
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312