<div dir="ltr"><h1>Reforming India’s foreign policy apparatus</h1><p class="">The
numbers and skill sets of India’s foreign service are woefully out of
sync with the global role that the political leadership envisages for
the country</p><div class=""><span class=""><div class=""><a><span id="fbCount">97</span></a></div></span>
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<span class=""> </span><span class=""> </span><span class=""><input id="emailAddress" class="" type="email"></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span>Subscribe to our newsletter.</span></span></div><hr class=""><div id="div_storyContent"><div class=""><span><strong><a href="http://www.livemint.com/Search/Link/Author/W.P.S.%20Sidhu">W.P.S. Sidhu</a></strong></span></div><div class=""><img src="http://www.livemint.com/rf/Image-621x414/LiveMint/Period2/2016/08/15/Photos/Opinion/modo-kFpF--621x414@LiveMint.JPG" alt="India, particularly under the Narendra Modi government, has sought to influence global developments through a series of initiatives. Photo: Reuters" title="India, particularly under the Narendra Modi government, has sought to influence global developments through a series of initiatives. Photo: Reuters" class=""></div><figcaption><span>India,
particularly under the Narendra Modi government, has sought to
influence global developments through a series of initiatives. Photo:
Reuters</span></figcaption><div class=""><p>
As India moves towards its seventh decade of Independence, it faces a
defining period and its future is increasingly intertwined with
developments in the international arena. As the world’s biggest
democracy and the world’s seventh largest economy, membership of the
G-20 and BRICS, increasing clout in international financial
institutions, growing acceptance as a nuclear-armed state, and
impressive UN peacekeeping credentials, India’s status as a global power
is not just recognized but increasingly institutionalized.</p><p>Additionally,
geopolitical and geo-economic shifts have created simultaneous
opportunities and challenges: the opening with the US; the rise of China
and Beijing’s efforts to block India’s global accommodation; the
so-called Arab Spring and its aftermath; and the growing international
tussles over climate, cyber, energy, food, the oceans and outer space.</p><p>India,
particularly under the Narendra Modi government, has sought to
influence global developments through a series of initiatives, such as
Neighbourhood First, Act East, Think West, SAGAR and the India-Africa
Forum. India’s foreign policy apparatus, particularly the Indian Foreign
Service (IFS), has so far done a valiant job to follow up these
initiatives. But is the IFS fit to serve India’s interests for the next
decade and beyond?</p><p>The short answer, according to the latest
report of the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs
chaired by Shashi Tharoor, is: probably not.</p><p>Consider the
following: First, India’s foreign service has the smallest number of
diplomats among the G-20 and BRICS countries. While the foreign ministry
argues that its “pool of about 2,700 diplomatic rank officers” (which
includes attachés, diplomatic secretarial staff, officers from other
ministries and interpreters) is comparable to the 4,500 diplomats of
China, 2,000 of Brazil, and 1,300 of New Zealand, this is a clever
fudge. Were attachés, secretarial staff and other officials included in
the figures of China and Brazil, their numbers would be much higher.</p><p>In
reality, according to the report, the total number of IFS officers is
772—140 short of the sanctioned strength of 912 officers, making it one
of the smallest.</p><p>Second, there is a serious disconnect between the
foreign policy requirements of the country and the language skills of
India’s diplomatic corps. For instance, of the 772 IFS officers, only
569 have proficiency in any non-Indian language, leaving 203 diplomats
with no foreign language ability whatsoever.</p><p>The report cites
“anecdotal evidence of Indian Ambassadors in Arabic-speaking countries
being handicapped by their lack of knowledge of Arabic, and similar
examples in a variety of countries”.</p><p>Worse, there is an even
greater disconnect between the foreign policy priorities and language
skills. While the government has prioritized its Neighbourhood First
policy, there is not a single diplomat with proficiency in either
Bhutanese, Dari or Nepalese and a mere two with knowledge of Pushtu and
only three diplomats with ability in Sinhalese.</p><p>Similarly, both
the Act East and Think West initiatives are poorly served by the lack of
local language proficiency. This will, doubtless, adversely impact
India’s ability to advance its interests.</p><p>China is the only
priority country that is adequately served by language-proficient
diplomats. As many as 75 Indian diplomats have proficiency in Chinese,
but even this is the result of a bias within the IFS towards five UN
languages—French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. Here too,
Chinese is the least-known language among the five UN languages.</p><p>The
lack of numbers and inadequate language is most evident in Africa (a
continent of increasing import for India), where over two dozen
embassies remain headless for want of diplomats and most of the
diplomats serving there have no knowledge of the local language.</p><p>Clearly,
the numbers and skill sets of India’s foreign service are woefully out
of sync with the global role that the political leadership envisages for
the country.</p><p>The committee’s report offers a series of practical and evolutionary steps to remedy the existing situation.</p><p>Until
the recommendations are implemented and the situation is rectified,
India—and the foreign service—will keep punching well below its weight.</p><p><i>W.P.S. Sidhu is a senior fellow at the New York University’s Center on International Cooperation</i></p><p><i><a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/WqHd7trJl2oWXBwv0QAe8N/Reforming-Indias-foreign-policy-apparatus.html">http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/WqHd7trJl2oWXBwv0QAe8N/Reforming-Indias-foreign-policy-apparatus.html</a><br></i></p></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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