This book presents an alternative roadmap for a world characterised by geopolitical uncertainty. The surging expectations about a future world of democratic values and high economic growth, born out of superpower bonhomie at the end of the Cold War, did not lead to the promised outcomes. Instead we are faced with deeply destabilising challenges, like climate change, widespread state fragility, terrorism, arms race, disruptive newer technologies, global economic volatility, and ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions, old and new.
The volume:
- surveys the intellectual discourse, the attempts to redesign the global institutions, and the geopolitical trends since the end of the Cold War for an understanding of the contemporary geopolitics,
- analyses the characteristics of the contemporary geopolitics, the seeming intractability of the global challenges, and the ongoing discourse about preventing their further deterioration,
- foregrounds the Gandhian praxis and IR theory for managing power transitions anchored in non-violent mobilisation of empowered masses, ensuring institutional resilience, and illustrates them through ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,
- outlines an approach, based on the Gandhian experience of managing political change, towards conflict, geopolitical uncertainties, and institutional ineffectiveness for securing a better future globally, including South Asia.
Accessibly written, this volume will be indispensable for foreign policy experts, government think tanks, and career bureaucrats. It will also be essential for scholars and researchers of international relations, foreign policy, politics, and governance and public policy.
Yogendra Kumar has had a long career as an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer. He joined the IFS in 1977 and began his diplomatic career in Moscow, subsequently serving in Indian diplomatic missions in London, Islamabad, and Brussels (covering EU, EC, Belgium, and Luxembourg). In between serving at headquarters, he headed the Indian Consulate General in Tashkent, covering the entire Soviet Central Asia. He later served as ambassador in Tajikistan (2000–2003) when he also covered Afghanistan until the opening of the resident mission there. He was High Commissioner in Namibia and retired in 2012 as ambassador in the Philippines with concurrent accreditation to Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Amongst his numerous assignments at headquarters, he handled multilateral organisations/dialogues such as the G8-G5 Dialogue, ASEAN, IBSA, IORA, and many others. He was on the faculty of the National Defence College, New Delhi. Since retirement, he has been participating in national and international conferences; writing in newspapers, specialist journals, and contributing chapters to edited volumes; and speaking on foreign and security affairs to diverse audiences. He has authored a book titled Diplomatic Dimension of Maritime Challenges for India in the 21st Century (2015) and edited and contributed to Whither Indian Ocean Maritime Order? (2017).
