A diplomatic machinery serves as the nervous system of a country's foreign policy initiatives. It is the medium through which a country's external relations is built and sustained. Diplomacy is not just about the larger-than-life summits between leaders or flashy events organised for the satisfaction of the political class. Without the behind-the-scenes work done by diplomats, foreign policy might not be an effective and serious field. 

So, how does a country's foreign service department contribute to effective diplomacy? What are the different sets of principles, practices and priorities used in diplomacy? What are the selection criteria for the diplomatic services across countries? 

The first episode in The Bridge Project Diplomacy Series features Ambassador Kishan S Rana and Ambassador Vijay K Nambiar in which they speak about 'Diplomatic Systems in U.S, China and India'.

Ambassador Rana is currently Professor Emeritus and a Senior Fellow at the DiploFoundation. During his distinguished Indian foreign service career, he worked in the China desk from 1963-1965 and 1970-72 and was also Ambassador and High Commissioner to Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Mauritius, and Germany.

Ambassador Nambiar served in the Indian Foreign Service from 1967 to 2004, after which he was Deputy National Security Advisor to the Government of India (2005- 06) and then seconded to the United Nations in New York for 11 years in the rank of Under Secretary-General (2006-2016). 

In this episode of The Bridge Project Exclusives moderated by Aayush Mohanty, Research Associate, Vivekananda International Foundation, they speak on a range of themes such as the structure and institutional capacity of the American, Chinese and Indian diplomatic systems; the selection criteria for the foreign services in India; diplomatic skills required for bilateral and multilateral diplomacy and many more.

Show Notes

1. Kishan S Rana, "Kautilya's Legacies", Business Standard, https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/kautilya-s-legacies-117052901625_1.html

2. Kishan S Rana, "Diplomacy & Patronage", Business Standard, https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/diplomacy-and-patronage-116101100669_1.html

3. Vijay K Nambiar, "The Belt and Road Initiative Post-April 2019: Plus ça Change", ICS Occasional Paper, https://icsin.org/publications/the-belt-and-road-initiative-post-april-2019-plus-ca-change-1

4. Sudha Ramachandran, "The Indian Foreign Service: Worthy of an Emerging Power?, https://thediplomat.com/2013/07/the-indian-foreign-service-worthy-of-an-emerging-power/

5. External Affairs Minister's speech at the 4th Ramnath Goenka Lecture, 2019, https://mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/32038/External+Affairs+Ministers+speech+at+the+4th+Ramnath+Goenka+Lecture+2019

Attribution:
The Bridge Project (2020), "Diplomatic Systems in the USA, China & India", Exclusives (1), 10 May 2020, URL: https://www.buzzsprout.com/921337/3695782

Research Credits:
Aayush Mohanty (Moderator) & Aishani Jaiswal

Music Credits:
Inspired by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/