HarperCollins India presents India’s Moment: Changing Power Equations around the World by Mohan Kumar

HarperCollins

presents

India’s Moment

Changing Power Equations around the World

by Mohan Kumar  

 

In India’s Moment, veteran diplomat Mohan Kumar, who has represented India in multiple international forums over his career, examines the shifts in global power equations over the decades and traces how India’s position has evolved over time.

A central contention of this book is that India has moved, slowly but surely, from being an alleged naysayer to becoming a putative partner for the world in key multilateral negotiations.

Paperback | 300 pp | Rs 599

Available wherever books are sold | Releasing 29^th Nov 2023

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Author, Mohan Kumar, says, “I have relied on my 36 years’ experience in the Indian Foreign Service to provide, from my perspective, as credible and as comprehensive an explanation as to why India does what it does in international negotiations and in making critical foreign policy choices on issues like the war in Ukraine. It is thus a Book that should appeal to both the foreign policy wonk and the man in the street.”

Associate Publisher, Swati Chopra, says, “In India’s Moment, Amb. Mohan Kumar uses decades of experience as India’s top diplomat to bring us a behind-the-scenes perspective on what goes on when nations negotiate with one another. From trade to climate to war and peace, the book covers the major international negotiations of recent years, including the Russia-Ukraine War. This book is also invaluable in that it explains India’s changing position on various issues through the years.”

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About the Book

Veteran diplomat Mohan Kumar represented India at multiple international forums over a career spanning three-and-a-half decades. During this time, he would invariably be told that Indian negotiators were among the best in the business. And yet, several of his interlocutors would ask in the same breath why India was such a tough customer when it came to multilateral negotiations. It was hard to escape the view held even by India’s friends that the country was somehow more of a naysayer than a partner in key international parleys.

India is not very different from other countries in seeking to protect where necessary, and advance where possible, its national interest. India’s Moment examines the shifts in international power equations over the decades and traces how India’s position has evolved over time. A central contention of this book is that India has moved, slowly but surely, from being an alleged naysayer to becoming a putative partner for the world in key multilateral negotiations. This reflects its growing political, economic and strategic clout in the world today that has led to ‘India’s moment’ in world diplomacy. When this transformation is fuller and more substantial, India will be able to fulfil its manifest destiny of becoming a leading power, capable of shaping global rules.

 

About the Author

Ambassador Dr Mohan Kumar is Dean, Strategic and International Initiatives, as well as Professor of Diplomatic Practice at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India. He was a member of the Indian Foreign Service for thirty-six years until he retired in July 2017 as India’s Ambassador to France, based in Paris.

He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration (BBA) from the University of Madurai (India) and his master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, India. He then went on to complete his doctorate (PhD) from the prestigious institution, Sciences Po, in Paris, France.

Kumar cut his diplomatic teeth in 1982 in Geneva at the then United Nations Human Rights Commission. Thus began Kumar’s journey in diplomatic negotiations, which was to take him back to Geneva again and again in the Nineties. His first close involvement with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was in 1992 and continued until the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. From 1995 to 2005, he was again associated with the WTO in one way or another. Finally, as India’s Ambassador to France, Kumar was actively associated with the climate change negotiations that culminated in the Paris Accords of 2015.

Ambassador Kumar is married with two grown children. He is immensely fond of travel, reading and writing. He follows cricket and tennis and is an avowed music buff.

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