FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS: The India-US Story by Seema Sirohi

vandana.rathore@harpercollins.co.in | 5 January 2023

HarperCollins

presents

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

The India-US Story

by Seema Sirohi

‘India is on the wrong side of history,’ declared President Bill Clinton post New Delhi’s nuclear tests in 1998 and came down with an array of sanctions. Cut to the present, India is no longer the enemy for the US. In an age dominated not just by China’s rise but by its undoubted political and economic muscle power, India has become the fashionable new ally in Washington.

This book takes the reader back to the twilight years of the Cold War and charts the diplomatic journey of what is today a defining geopolitical relationship.

Paperback | Non-fiction| Politics and Government | 496 pp | Rs 699

Available Wherever Books Are Sold | Releasing 19^th Jan 2023

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Author, Seema Sirohi, says, “I have been fortunate enough to watch the arc of the India-US relationship bend towards friendship despite the bumps along the way. With this book, my aim is to fill the gaps in a narrative that is often set in the West and is often one-sided. As they say, reality is more complicated. I tell the India-US story by showing the drama of diplomacy and recounting how officials really felt about the problems and prospects of the relationship. There were moments when it seemed the centre would not hold and things would fall apart. They did not. Slowly but surely, the two ships of state turned around from hostile to a friendly posture. This decades-long dance between the two is what Friends with Benefits is all about.”

Associate Publisher, Swati Chopra, says, “Friends with Benefits is the most comprehensive account yet of the India-US relationship and how it reached the point it has today. Seema Sirohi, who has reported from Washington DC for more than three decades, brings her considerable expertise, a keen eye for detail and an insouciant wit to weave a compelling narrative – where historical foes turn into friends, and then into friends with benefits, even as decade-defining events are unfolding on the world stage. Rich in detail, analysis and anecdote, this book must be read as the grand geopolitical saga that it is, with a cast of characters that range from prime ministers and presidents to government officials, analysts, politicians, intelligence operatives, journalists and everybody in between.”

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Thirty years ago, when Seema Sirohi first arrived in Washington, DC, as a journalist, relations between India and the United States were beset by problems. In the 1980s and the1990s, the US viewed Pakistan and China favourably, but saw India as a giant hindrance. New Delhi’s nuclear tests in 1998 were the final blow, and the US came down ‘like a ton of bricks’ with an array of sanctions. ‘India is on the wrong side of history,’ President Bill Clinton declared. Was it?

Cut to the present, and the geopolitical arena is dramatically different. The US no longer sees India as an adversary but as an indispensable partner. China’s determined rise has significantly changed Washington’s strategic calculus. Today the US is busy trying to retain its pre-eminent position in the world by creating new friendships and alliances.

What took India and the US so long to get in sync? Did political leaders show the way or did foreign office mandarins change the game? Was China’s long shadow the deciding factor or did the Indian diaspora bring the two closer? And are the two democracies finally ready for a full-fledged relationship or will they remain ‘friends with benefits’?

To look for answers, this book takes the reader back to the twilight years of the Cold War and charts the diplomatic journey of what is today a defining geopolitical relationship. Using first-hand reportage and drawing on conversations with key players, policymakers and former intelligence officials, Seema Sirohi brings a delightfully frank perspective to a thrilling tale of diplomacy and high-voltage politics

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Seema Sirohi is currently based in Washington and writes a column on foreign policy and India’s place in the world for The Economic Times. She has covered India–US relations for more than three decades for The Telegraph, Outlook and FirstPost.com. She has also reported from Italy, Austria, Israel, Slovakia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and published opinion pieces in The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor and The Baltimore Sun. She has appeared on NDTV, India Today TV, BBC and CNN to comment on international events.

She got her bachelor’s in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and studied sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She received her master’s in journalism from the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Her first book, Sita’s Curse: Stories of Dowry Victims, was published in 2003. Twitter: @seemasirohi

ADVANCE PRAISE

‘There have been several books on India–US relations in recent years, but what makes Seema Sirohi’s Friends with Benefits unique is the perspective she offers as an accomplished journalist on how the two vibrant democracies have journeyed from estrangement to engagement. Her insights, drawn from an extended involvement with the subject, are both sharp and incisive.’

—Shyam Saran, former foreign secretary, Government of India, and former special envoy for the Prime Minister for nuclear issues and climate change

‘Friends with Benefits is a delightful and sometimes pungent retelling of the transforming US–India relationship. With a veteran journalist’s practised eye, Seema Sirohi assembles extraordinary detail to vividly capture the zeitgeist of every phase in the bilateral relationship in the last thirty-odd years. Her book is a superb reminder of not only how far Washington and New Delhi have come in recent times, but also why this partnership needs constant tending if it is to deliver on its ambitions in the years ahead.’

—Ashley J. Tellis, the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former senior adviser to the US State Department

‘Seema Sirohi’s fast-paced account of the modern US–India relationship is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the road our two previously estranged countries have followed in the past three decades. She spices up her pages with telling anecdotes, several of which I experienced during my time as ambassador to India. Friends with Benefits: The India–US Story adds essential insights into one of the defining relationships of our age.’

—Frank G. Wisner, former US ambassador to India, Egypt, Zambia and the Philippines

‘Seema Sirohi has used her thirty-year experience in Washington, and deep knowledge of India and the US to write an accurate, accessible and timely account of the relationship. Mindful of pitfalls, past and future, this is not purely an optimistic tome, though it does show the good that diplomacy and political will can achieve. Friends with Benefits is well worth reading to make sense of an increasingly important relationship in a constantly changing and troubled world.’

—Shivshankar Menon, former national security adviser and former foreign secretary, Government of India

‘Seema Sirohi’s Friends with Benefits is meticulously researched and filled with fascinating vignettes. Her page-turning account deepens our understanding and appreciation for what President Joe Biden often calls “the most important relationship of the twenty-first century”

—Lisa Curtis, director, the Indo-Pacific Security Program, Center for a New American Security, and former senior director for South and Central Asia in the White House

‘Seema Sirohi’s rich and racy account captures the incredible transformation of India–US relations in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. For those who might take the current productive ties between Delhi and Washington for granted, Sirohi reminds us how challenging the journey has been. Friends with Benefits is a must read for the merely curious as well as the professionals engaged with the foreign policies of India and the US.’

—C. Raja Mohan, senior fellow with Asia Society Policy Institute, and leading analyst of India’s foreign and security policies

‘Friends with Benefits is a detailed, punchy and richly reported account of the last several decades of Indo-US relations. Seema Sirohi, a long-time observer of the relationship, has written an entertaining book that balances incisive analysis with valuable original reportage. A fascinating read.’

—Shashi Tharoor, member of Parliament and author

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For reviews, excerpts, interviews, and more information, please contact Vandana Rathore at
vandana.rathore@harpercollins.co.in