B 33 IFS Apartments
Mayur Vihar I Delhi 110 091
Tel: ++ 91-11-2279 1021
Mobile: ++91-98107-22933
Email: kishanrana [at] gmail.com
Website: https://kishanrana.diplomacy.edu

Educated at St. Stephens College, Delhi University; a BA (Hon), MA in Economics (First Division). Joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1960; served for 35 years, retiring in 1995. Foreign languages: Chinese and French.
His Service career divides into two clear segments: the first 15 years were spent in and working on China from the Ministry of External Affairs, first learning the language, followed by two assignments in Beijing, and two spells of working on the China and East Asia desks at the Ministry of External Affairs. The only break in this pattern was 3-years spent in Geneva working on multilateral diplomacy, and in Delhi, working for almost two years in the territorial division dealing with neighbors, Bhutan and Nepal.

In 1975, his career took a turn, assigned as Ambassador to Algeria. Of the next 20 years, he spent 17 overseas, as Ambassador or High Commissioner to Czechoslovakia, Kenya, (and Consul General, San Francisco, 1986-89), and then to Mauritius, and Germany. In 1981-83 he served as a Joint Secretary in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Office for a year, and directly after that, headed personnel administration in the Ministry of External Affairs. He handled multilateral diplomacy in two spells, as a first secretary at the Indian mission at Geneva (1967-70), and as permanent representative to UNEP and Habitat, Nairobi, (concurrently High Commissioner in Kenya, 1984-86).

Retired in 1995; initially engaged as a free-lance business advisor 1995-99. Worked as a part-time adviser to a South East Asian tourism promotion body, a London-based merchant bank, and a German management consultancy company, and also advised several Indian companies. Since 2000 he has focused on teaching and writing: currently Professor Emeritus & part-time e-learning teaching faculty member, DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva, he has developed five training courses which are delivered annually through distance teaching at the MA level. Supervised about 20 MA dissertations for a degree awarded through DiploFoundation, by the University of Malta. Other activities: Commonwealth Adviser to the Namibia Foreign Ministry (2000-01); Emeritus Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi, also book review editor of the Institute’s flagship publication China Report; Archives By-Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge, 2004; Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC, 2005; Distinguished Fellow, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Kuala Lumpur; guest faculty, Diplomatic Academy, Vienna, 2011-18 (delivering a six-lecture module); short-term Commonwealth consultant, Botswana Foreign Ministry, 2012. He has developed distance training courses for the Canadian and British foreign ministries; lectured on diplomacy related subjects in about 30 foreign countries, at universities and at training institutions run by foreign ministries. Also lectured and developed several training courses at the Indian Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi, 1995-2008; professor emeritus at this FSI from 2001 to 2008.

Distance learning courses offered at DiploFoundation, the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, UAE Foreign Ministry and elsewhere:

  • Bilateral Diplomacy
  • 21st Century Diplomacy
  • Public Diplomacy
  • Consular and Diaspora Diplomacy
  • Economic Diplomacy

Lectured at ambassador conferences held in Bahrain, Botswana, Kenya and Namibia, and at a meeting of deans of diplomatic training of the ‘ASEAN Plus Three’ group, at Malaysia in 2005.

Publications:

Inside Diplomacy
 Manas Publications: New Delhi, 2000;
(revised paperback edition August, 2002).
Managing Corporate Culture Managing Corporate Culture: Leveraging Diversity to give India a Global Competitive Edge, (with Karl Ulrich and R.S. Chaudhry);
Macmillan India: New Delhi, 2000; (won First Prize, the Indian Society for Training & Development, New Delhi, Jan. 2001).
Bilateral Diplomacy Bilateral Diplomacy, DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva, 2002. (South Asian edition, Manas, New Delhi, 2002; Chinese translation: Peking University Press, 2005).
he 21st Century Ambassador: Plenipotentiary to Chief Executive The 21st Century Ambassador: Plenipotentiary to Chief Executive,
 DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva, 2004.
(South Asian edition: Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2005; Chinese translation, published in 2008).
Asian Diplomacy: The Foreign Ministries of China, India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand Asian Diplomacy: The Foreign Ministries of China, India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand
(DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva, 2007; South Asian edition, OUP, New Delhi, 2008; US edition, John Hopkins University, Baltimore).
Co-editor, Foreign Ministries: Managing Diplomatic Networks and Delivering Value Co-editor, Foreign Ministries: Managing Diplomatic Networks and Delivering Value,
(DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva, 2007).
Diplomacy for the 21st Century: A Practitioner's Guide Diplomacy for the 21st Century: A Practitioner’s Guide (Continuum, New York, 2011).
Economic Diplomacy: India's Experience Co-editor, Economic Diplomacy: India’s Experience,
(CUTS, Jaipur, 2011).
India’s North-East States, the BCIM Forum and Regional Integration Co-author: monograph, India’s North-East States, the BCIM Forum and Regional Integration,
(Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi, 2012).
International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy Co-editor, special issue, ‘Economic Diplomacy and Emerging and Developing Countries’, International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy, Vol. 1 Issue 3 & 4, 2013.
The Contemporary Embassy: Paths to Diplomatic Excellence The Contemporary Embassy: Paths to Diplomatic Excellence,
Palgrave-Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2013.
Diplomacy at the Cutting Edge Diplomacy: At the Cutting Edge, Manas Publications, New Delhi, 2015.
China Report Vol 53 Issue 2 March 2017 Co-editor, special issue, China Report, Issue 53:2, New Delhi (under publications).

Articles:

  1. ‘A Design to Excel’, Business India, Mumbai, 1 January 1996.
  2.  ‘New Face of Diplomacy: An Expanding Role’. Indian Express, New Delhi, February 9, 1996.
  3. ‘The Missing Spark’ Business Standard, New Delhi, 10 February 1996.
  4. ‘Shaping a Workforce’ Business India, Mumbai, 20 May 1996.
  5.  ‘Technical Training: A Perspective’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 9 July 1997.
  6. ‘Export or Perish’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 21 July 1997.
  7. ‘Promoting India’s Economic Interests Abroad: The Main Tasks Ahead’, eds. Lalit Mansingh, et al, Indian Foreign Policy: Agenda for the 21st Century, Vol. I, (Konark, Delhi, 1997), pp. 222-33.
  8. ‘Restructuring the MEA’, eds. Lalit Mansingh, et al, Indian Foreign Policy: Agenda for the 21st Century, Vol. I, (Konark, Delhi, 1997), pp. 431-45.
  9. ‘Memories of a Young Indian Diplomat in China in the 1960s and the 1970s’, Across the Himalayan Gap: An Indian Quest for Understanding China, (Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, New Delhi, 1998).
  10. ‘Adopt The German Model’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 13 April 1997.
  11. Three article series on Algeria: ‘Seeds of a Crisis’, ‘Goods and Good Relations’, ‘Fundamental Facts’, Asian Age, New Delhi, 17-19 February 1999.
  12. ‘Berlin: From Reich to Republic’ The Telegraph, Kolkata, 26 August 1999.
  13. ‘Indian Diplomacy’, World Focus, New Delhi, October 1999.
  14. ‘Need to Strengthen Relations in South Asia’, India Abroad, New York, 7 January 2000.
  15. ‘Revisiting China: An Indian Diplomat’s Impressions of China, Which is on the Fast Track of Transformation’, (article and photo essay), Frontline, Chennai, 4 February 2000.
  16. ‘Modernising The Delivery System For Foreign Policy’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 22 August 2000.
  17.  ‘The Media, Public Opinion and Diplomacy’ Business Standard, August 2001.
  18. ‘Terrorism: Beyond Manhattan’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 14 September 2001.
  19. ‘Ke”EP” up the good work’ Business Standard, New Delhi, 20 August, 2002.
  20. ‘Inside The Indian Foreign Service’, Foreign Service Journal, Washington DC, October, 2002.
  21. ‘Island Diplomacy’, Indian Express, New Delhi, 7 June 2003.
  22. ‘E-Learning’s Different, But it Works’ Business Standard, New Delhi, 10 March 2004.
  23. Dipomatic Culture and its Domestic Context, ‘Intercultural Communication and Diplomacy’, DiploFoundation, Malta, 2004.
  24. ‘Public Diplomacy and India’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 8 May 2004.
  25. ‘Beijing Diary’, Outlook, New Delhi, 5 July 2004.
  26. Performance Management in Foreign Ministries: Corporate Techniques in the Diplomatic Services (‘Studies in Diplomacy’ series of papers, Clingendael, July 2004) [http://www.clingendael.nl/cli/publ/diplomacy/pdf/issue93.pdf ]
  27. ‘Economic Diplomacy in India: A Practitioner’s Perspective’, International Studies Perspectives, Vol. 5 (2004), pp. 66-70.
  28. ‘Navel gazing at the foreign office’, Business Standard, New Delhi, 21 January, 2005.
  29. ‘E-Learning for Diplomats’, Foreign Service Journal, Washington DC, Vol. 82, No. 7, July-August 2005.
  30. ‘The Structure and Operation of China’s Diplomatic System’, China Report, 41:3, 2005.
  31. ‘Singapore’s Diplomacy: Vulnerability into Strength’, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol.1 no.1 (2006), pp.81-106.
  32. ‘Diplomatic Training: Options and Opportunities’, ‘The Journal of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations’, Kuala Lumpur, Vol. 8, No. 2 December 2006.
  33. ‘Mastering Commercial Diplomacy’, Business Line, Chennai, 10 February 2007.
  34. ‘The Asian Dimension’, ‘Envisioning Asia’ issue, Seminar, New Delhi, Issue 573, June 2007, New Delhi, pp. 24-32, http://www.india-seminar.com/2007/573/573_kishan_s_rana.htm
  35. ‘Representing India in the Diplomatic Corps’, The Diplomatic Corps as an Institution of International Society, eds. Paul Sharp and Geoffrey Wiseman, (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2007), pp. 125-42.
  36. ‘Economic Diplomacy: The Experience of Developing Countries’, The New Economic Diplomacy: Decision Making and Negotiations in International Relations, eds. Nicholas Bayne and Stephen Woolcock, (Ashgate, London, 2nd Edition, 2007), pp. 201-20.
  37. ‘Diplomatic Education’, published as Chapter 11 in: An Anthology Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of the Higher Colleges of Technology, ed. Tayeb A Kamali, (HCT Press, UAE, 2007).
  38. ‘Role of Diplomacy in Managing the Movement of People’, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, New Delhi, January, 2008
  39. ‘Such a Long Journey’, Business Standard, 17 February 2008.
  40. ‘Regional Diplomacy and India-China Economic Relations’, China Report, New Delhi, 44:3 (2008)
  41. ‘Women in the Indian Foreign Service: Gender Equality’, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, New Delhi, October 2008.
  42. ‘Building Relations Through Multi-Dialogue Formats: Trends in Bilateral Diplomacy’, Journal of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Kuala Lumpur, Vol. 10, No. 1 December 2008.
  43.  ‘MEA’s institutional software – A US prognosis’, Business Standard, 23 July 2009.
  44. ‘India’s Diaspora Diplomacy’, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol.4 no.3 (2009), pp.361-372.
  45. The Strategic Impact of a Rising India: Prospects and Challenges, The Asia Pacific Roundtable Series, Kuala Lumpur, 2009.
  46. ‘Beyond Diplomacy 101’, Business Standard, 25 December 2010.
  47. ‘Resetting India’s Public Diplomacy’ Business Standard, 16 January 2011.
  48.  ‘Serving the Private Sector: India’s Experience in Context’, The New Economic Diplomacy: Decision Making and Negotiation in International Economic Relations, Bayne and Woolcock, 3rd edition, (Ashgate, London, 2012).
  49. ‘Sub-Regional Diplomacy: An Imperative of Our Time’, ICSSR-NERC Conference on ‘India’s Look East Policy and the North-Eastern Region: Strengthening the Continental Route.’ Shillong, 21-22 March, 2012.
  50.  ‘India’s Economic Diplomacy’, (to be published in a Lexicon of Economic Diplomacy and International Business, by the Institute of Economic Diplomacy, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012).
  51. ‘India’s Rise in Asia & Some Thoughts on Strategic Decision-Making’, to be published by the South Asia Institute, Chengdu, Sichuan University in their publication on a September 2012 conference on ‘Asian Diplomacy and India’.
  52. Three article series: ‘Battle Lines of the 1962 War’, 17 September; ‘A message for Mr. Nehru’s ears only’, 20 October; ‘The 1962 war – Where did India go wrong?’, 31 October, 2012 Business Standard.
  53. ‘China – At the crossroads’, 9 November 2012, Business Standard.
  54. ‘India-China Cooperation: Some Elements for Building Scenarios’, China-India Cooperation Prospects: Papers Presented at the 1st Academic Summit on China-India Cooperation in 2011, edited by Victor FS Sit, Enrich, Hong Kong, 2013.
  55. ‘Diaspora Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy’, Relational, Networked, and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective Mindshift, Routledge, New York, 2013.
  56. ‘Foreign Visits and the Headlines’, Business Standard, 23 February 2013.
  57. ‘Persuasion, Trust and Personal Credibility’, Persuasion, the essence of diplomacy, Prof. Dietrich Kappeler, DiploFoundation, Malta, February 2013.
  58. ‘India’s Aid Diplomacy’, Business Standard, 12 May 2013.
  59. ‘Why Cooperation with Neighboring Countries is Vital for India’s Northeast’, Business Standard, 2 June 2013
  60. ‘Time for India to hit back at UK’s irrational visa barriers’, Business Standard, 1 August, 2013
  61. ‘How India needs better advocacy to mobilise more FDI’, Business Standard, 4 August 2013
  62. ‘Economic Diplomacy: What Might Best Serve a Developing Country?’ Special Issue, ‘Economic Diplomacy and Emerging and Developing Countries’, International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy, Vol.1, Issue 3-4.
  63. ‘The view from India’, Out of the Cold: The Cold War and Its Legacy, Michael R Fitzgerald and Allen Packwood, eds, Bloomsbury, New York, 2013.
  64. ‘Innovation and Bilateral Diplomacy’, The Journal of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Vol. 13, No. 2, November 2013.
  65. ‘The Truth About Summits’, Business Standard, 2 March 2014, conference papers.
  66. ‘For the foreign ministry, a task within the country’s borders’, Business Standard, 25 May 2014.
  67. ‘India and China: Comparing Soft Power’, India-China Insights, June 2014.
  68. ‘An open letter: diplomacy with growth in mind’, Business Standard, 8 June 2014.
  69. ‘The power to attract’, Business Standard, 22 June 2014.
  70. ‘The Glass Gets Fuller’, Foreign Service Journal, Washington DC, June 2014.
  71. ‘Dealing with the silk route merchants’, Business Standard, 17 August, 2014
  72. ‘How Mr. Modi can revitalise the foreign ministry’, Business Standard, 5 October 2014.
  73. ‘How to brand India’, Business Standard, 16 November 2014.
  74. ‘Diplomacy Systems and Processes: Comparing India and China’, China Report, Vol.50-4, November 2014, pp.297-323.
  75. ‘A visit that enshrined diplomacy as spectacle…’ Business Standard, 1 February 2015.
  76. ‘A new beginning in the Indian ocean’, Business Standard, 8 March 2015.
  77. ‘The Silk Roads and India today’, Business Standard, 3 May 2015.
  78. ‘India and China: cooperation, competition or contestation?’ 17 May 2015.
  79.  ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Visit to China, May 2015’, China Report, 51:4, 2015.
  80. ‘Foreign Policy as a Public Good’, Policy Wonks, 17 August 2015, http://policywonks.in/commentary/foreign-policy-as-a-public-good
  81. ‘Soft Power Diplomacy Will Help Strengthen India-Germany Relations’, The Quint, 6 October 2015, http://www.thequint.com/opinion/2015/10/06/soft-power-diplomacy-will-help-in-strengthening-india-germany-ties
  82. ‘Revisiting Civil Service Recruitment’, Business Standard, 18 October 2015.
  83. ‘Focus on Inherent Strength, Don’t be Distracted by China’, The Quint, 27 October 2015, http://www.thequint.com/opinion/2015/10/27/focus-on-inherent-strength-dont-be-distracted-by-china-in-africa
  84. ‘Exchanges among foreign ministries on diplomacy methods: Some thoughts’, The Journal of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Kuala Lumpur, Vol. 15, No. 2, December 2015, pp. 5-16.
  85. ‘Getting the whole government involved in foreign affairs’ Business Standard, 14 February 2016.
  86. ‘Shedding old beliefs on Pakistan, China’, Business Standard, 24 February 2016.
  87. ‘A diplomatic necessity: Why embassies persist in the digital age’, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute, 6 April 2016, http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/04/06/A-diplomatic-necessity-Why-embassies-persist-in-the-digital-age.aspx
  88. ‘Serving the Private Sector: India’s Economic Diplomacy’ Chapter Six, The New Economic Diplomacy, 4th edition, ‘The New Economic Diplomacy: Decision-Making and Negotiation in International Economic Relations’, Ashgate, 2016.
  89. ‘Some steps for India’s renewal’, Business Standard, 1 May 2016.
  90. ‘Economic Diplomacy: A Developing Country Perspective’, Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy, Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, and Selwyn Moons eds. Institute of Social Studies Erasmus University and Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2016.
  91.  ‘India and China: Soft Power in an Asian Context’, The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power, Routledge, 2016. https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Soft-Power/Chitty-Hayden-Ji-Rawnsley/p/book/9781138945814
  92. ‘China: Prospects and Paradoxes’, Business Standard, 1 September 2016.
  93. ‘Diplomatic Training: New Trends’, Foreign Service Journal, Washington DC, September 2016.
  94. ‘India & China: Managing Mistrust?’ Business Standard, 5 September 2016.
  95. ‘Embassies, Permanent Missions and Special Missions’, Sage Handbook on Diplomacy, Sage, 2016.
  96.  ‘India and Germany: Comparing Democracy and Federalism’, Opportunity Beckons: Adding Momentum to the Indo-German Partnership, Rupa, 2017.
  97. ‘Why India needs smart diplomacy’, Business Standard, 26 February 2017.
  98. Prague, Splurge,
  99. ‘Transforming foreign policy’, Business Standard, 16 April 2017.
  100. ‘Ensuring that the MEA delivers’, Business Standard, 30 April, 2017,
  101. ‘India and China in Asia’, Guest Editor’s Introduction, China Report, 53:2, May 2017.
  102. ‘China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Implications, Prospects and Consequences: Impact on India and its China Diplomacy.’ Institute of Chinese Studies, Occasional Paper No. 16, September 2017.
  103. Will Shashi Tharoor’s Recommendations Reform the MEA for the Better?’, 25 October 2017, The Wire, https://thewire.in/190617/will-shashi-tharoors-recommendations-reform-mea-better/‘
  104. ‘The VUCA world and diplomacy’, 23 October, 2017. https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/vuca-world-and-diplomacy
  105. ‘How the Tourism Industry can be an Agent for India’s Advancement’, 6 December 2017, The Wire, https://thewire.in/201833/india-tourism-promotion/
  106. ‘A Poorly Serviced Export Engine’, Business Standard, 27 April 2018
  107. ‘How to manage India’s relations with China, Business Standard, 23 May 2018.
  108. ‘Kautilya’, Encyclopedia of Diplomacy, Wiley, 2018.
  109. ‘Bilateral Diplomacy’, Encyclopedia of Diplomacy, Wiley, 2018.
  110. ‘Indian Foreign Policy: Challenges, Requirements and India’s Response’, Economic and Political Weekly, 4 August 2018.
  111. ‘Diplomatic Training: Recent Developments’, Diplomatic Voice, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Kuala Lumpur, November 2018.
  112. ‘China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” Revisited’, Economic and Political Weekly, 15 December 2018.
  113. ‘Xi Jinping’s Diplomatic Strategy’, China at a Turning Point: Perspectives after the 19th Party Congress, Ed. Manoranjan Mohanty,  ICS, New Delhi, 2019.
  114. ‘Fixing India’s Strategic Thinking Vacuum’, The Wire, 4 June 2019, https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-strategic-thinking
  115. ‘China’s Foreign Ministry: Fit for purpose in the era of Xi Jinping, BRI and “major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics”?’ China Report, 55:3, 2019.
  116. ‘How Consistent Has Our Diplomacy Been in Pursuit of Economic objectives’, The Wire, 18 November, 2019,  https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-external-affairs-jaishankar
  117. ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About China’,  The Wire, 25 December 2019, https://thewire.in/world/china-india-bri-rcep
  118. ‘The MEA’s Structural Reforms Are Promising, but Not Sufficient’, The Wire, 19 February 2020,  https://thewire.in/government/ministry-external-affairs-reform-foreign-policy
  119. ‘Asian Diplomacy: Harmony and Contrasts’, Emirates Diplomatic Academy Insights, February 2020, https://eda.ac.ae/docs/default-source/Publications/eda-insight-feb-2020-english-amb-kishan-rana.pdf?sfvrsn=2
  120. ‘The Corona Pandemic will Leave its Imprint on Governance and Polity’, The Wire, 22 April, 2020 https://thewire.in/government/the-coronavirus-pandemic-will-leave-its-imprint-on-governance-and-polity
  121. ‘India’s Envoy to China 1961-63: PK Banerjes’s China Days, Economic & Political Weekly, 29 August 2020, https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/35/document/indias-envoy-china-1961%E2%80%9363.html

Book Reviews (incomplete list):

  1. Foreign Ministries: Change and Adaptation, ed. Brian Hocking, (Macmillan, London, 1999), The Book Review, 
  2. Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, GR Berridge, (2nd edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2002), Business Standard, 2003
  3. The New Mandarins: The Making of British Foreign Policy, John Dickie, (IB Tauris, London, 2004), Business Standard, 2005
  4. The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century, RJ Barendse, (Vision, New Delhi, 2004), Business Standard, 2007.
  5. Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600-1400,  Tansen Sen, (Manohar, New Delhi, 2004), The Book Review, 2007.
  6. Buddha’s Warriors, Mikel Dunham, (Penguin, New Delhi, 2004), The Book Review, 2006
  7. Diplomacy and Developing Nations: Post-Cold War foreign policy-making structures and processes, Justin Robertson and Maurice A. East (eds.), 
  8. Memoirs of an Indian Diplomat, B S Das, (Tata-Mcgraw Hill, 2010) Business Standard, 23 September 2010.
  9. The Ambassador’s Club: The Indian Diplomat at Large, ed. Krishna V Rajan, HarperCollins, Business Standard, 23 June 2012.
  10. India’s Foreign Policy: Coping with the Changing World, Muchkund Dubey
    Pearson, New Delhi, 2012, Business Standard, I3 November 2012.
  11. Walking With Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past, K Natwar Singh (Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2013), Business Standard, 14 February 2013. 
  12. Guerrilla Diplomacy: Rethinking International Relations, Daryl Copeland, (Lynne Reiner, Colorado, US, 2009), website of Prof. GR Berridge, http://grberridge.diplomacy.edu/booknotes/book-reviews-2011/#copeland 23 July 2013
  13. India-Pakistan Relations: 1947-2007: A Documentary Study, Avtar Singh Bhasin, Business Standard, 31 July 2013.
  14. Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the 21st Century, Sunil Khilnani, Rajiv Kumar, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Prakash Menon, Nandan Nilekani, Srinath Raghavan, Shyam Saran, Siddarth Vardarajan, Business Standard, 7 November 2013.
  15. Stuff Happens: An Anecdotal Insight into Indian Diplomacy, Rajendra Abhyankar, (Har-Anand Publications, 2013), Business Standard, 8 January 2014.
  16. Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific, C Raja Mohan, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2013, China Report, May 2014, Vol.50 (2)
  17. Redesigning the Aeroplane While Flying: Reforming Institutions, Arun Maira
    (Rupa Publications India, 2014), Business Standard, 11 June 2014.
  18. Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat, Helen McCarthy
    (Bloomsbury, London, 2014), Business Standard, 11 August 2014.
  19. China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in Africa, Howard W French, (Knopf, New York, 2014), Business Standard, 12 November 2014.
  20. What Diplomats Do: The Life and Work of Diplomats, Brian Barder, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), Business Standard, 15 January 2015.
  21. China Goes Global, David Shambaugh, China Report, 51: 1 (2015).
  22. Dance with the Dragon: The Vanished World of Peking’s Foreign Colony, Business Standard, .
  23. India’s LAC of engagement, Deepak Bhojwani, Business Standard, 14 July 2015
  24. The Ashgate Research Companion to Chinese Foreign Policy, Emilian Kavalsk, Ed. China Report, 51: 2 (2015).
  25. The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy, Daniel A Bell, Princeton University, 2015, China Report, 52: 3 (2016).
  26. India’s Relations with Indonesia, Navrekha Sharma and Baladas Ghoshal, Research Asia, Singapore, 2014; and Masala Bumbu: Enhancing the India-Indonesia Partnership, Gurjit Singh, ed. Beritasatu, Jakarta, 2015, Business Standard, 2016.
  27. China’s Future, David Shambaugh, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2015, China Report, 52: 3 (2016).
  28. Sinology in Post-Communist States: Views from the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland and Russia, Chih-yu Shih, ed. (Chinese University HK Press, Hong Kong, 2016, China Report, 52: 4 (2016).
  29. in Standard, 10 July 2016, (Published under title: ‘Aide Memoire’).
  30. India at the Global Table: The Quest for Regional Primacy and Strategic Autonomy, Schaffer, Teresita and Howard, Brookings, Washington DC, 2016, The Book Review, September 2016.
  31. American Ambassadors: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Diplomats, Dennis C Jett, Business Standard, 12 October 2016. 
  32. China’s Borders: Settlements & Conflicts: Selected Papers, Neville Maxwell (publisher’s name not given, 2014), China Report, 53:2 (2017). 
  33. Assessing China’s Power, Jae Ho Chung, ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, China Report 53:3 (2017).
  34. Population in China, Nancy E Riley, Polity, London, 2017, China Report  (2017).
  35. Kautilya’s Arathashastra: An Intellectual Portrait: The Classical Roots of Modern Politics in India, Subrata K Mitra & Michael Liebig, Nomos, 2017, Business Standard, June 2017. 
  36. ‘Analysing China’s Soft Power Strategies and Comparative Indian Initiatives’ by Parama Sinha Palit, China Report, Vol 54: 2.
  37. ‘India-China Relations 1947-2000: A Documentary Study’, (five volumes) Avtar Singh Bhasin, China Report, Vol 54: 3.
  38. ‘Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years’, Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa, Business Standard, 22 January 2018.
  39. ‘Power & Diplomacy: India’s Foreign Policies during the Cold War’, Zorawar Daulet Singh, OUP, New Delhi 2018, Gateway House, April 2019.
  40. ‘The Legitimacy of Power: The Permanence of Five in the Security Council’, Dilip Sinha, Vij Books and Indian Council of  World Affairs, 2019, Business Standard, 25 April 2019.
  41. ‘Values in Foreign Policy: Investigating Ideals and Interests’, Eds. Krishnan Srinivasan, James Mayall, Sanjay Pulipaka, Rowman & Littlefield, London, 2019, Business Standard, 5 December 2019.

Other Activities

In 2002 and 2003 I developed two training courses of six lectures each for the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, in a self-learning format; they covered ‘Bilateral Diplomacy’ and ‘Contemporary Diplomacy’. In 2007, a Canadian colleague, Ambassador Adriaan de Hoog, and I collaborated to develop a similar self-learning course covering ‘Multilateral Diplomacy’.

In 2008 a version of the ‘Bilateral Diplomacy’ self-learning course that had been developed jointly with DiploFoundation, was acquired by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and adapted for its use. I worked with the FCO’s experts in producing this adaptation.

Photography has been a life-long interest, starting from my schooldays. Retirement from the foreign service did not push me towards this hobby, as much as I had hoped. Digital photography now offers wider low cost options, and the few pictures I sell for publication also provide an incentive. In 2003 I had held a photo exhibition at the India International Center, New Delhi.