Posts Tagged ‘Daniel Markey’
Finally the Indian Foreign Service Opts for Change
On July 17, I posted an article “Daniel Markey on Developing India’s Foreign Policy Software.” The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) seems to have taken Daniel’s recommendations seriously, though there is no explicit mention of it. In a news report carried in the August 11 edition of The Economic Times, winds of change are sweeping India’s foreign office. The proposed reforms are impressive but any tangible change will depend on genuine and consistent implementation.
The elite IFS that powers India’s global diplomacy and manages relations with nations is changing. Mid Career training and specialization are the new mantra. Promotions were a matter of aging gracefully, but now even senior diplomats have to prove themselves to move up the career ladder. In a never-before event, 30 joint secretary rank diplomats - or mid-career diplomats - due for promotion were sent to the Indian School of Business, the country’s top business school, at Hyderabad to reorient them to the new challenges of economic diplomacy in a business-driven world. Click to continue…
Daniel Markey on Developing India’s Foreign Policy Software
Daniel Markey (Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations) has written an insightful analysis in the Asia Policy, (No.8, July 2009) titled “Developing India’s Foreign Policy Software”. The article outlines significant shortcomings in India’s foreign policy institutions that undermine the country’s capacity for ambitious and effective international action, and proposes steps that both New Delhi and Washington should take, assuming they aim to promote India’s rise as a great power. Some of Daniel’s observations are worrisome but real.
The main argument of the article is as follows - India’s own foreign policy establishment hinders the country from achieving great-power status for four main reasons: (1) The Indian Foreign Service is small, hobbled by its selection process and inadequate midcareer training, and tends not to make use of outside expertise; (2) India’s think-tanks lack sufficient access to the information or resources required to conduct high-quality, policy-relevant scholarship; (3) India’s public universities are poorly funded, highly regulated, and fail to provide world-class education in the social sciences and other fields related to foreign policy; and (4) India’s media and private firms—leaders in debating the country’s foreign policy agenda—are not built to undertake sustained foreign policy research or training. Click to continue…