The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted a Flagship Seminar with our Distinguished Fellow, Shivshankar Menon, on his new book, India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present.

Documenting the changes in India’s foreign policy from Independence to the present, Shivshankar Menon examines the issues facing the country as it finds its way in the increasingly complex world of Asian geopolitics. From its leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War to its current status as a rising power, India’s domestic drivers and international choices become even more significant as the country gains stature across the globe.

Menon particularly focuses on India’s responses to the rise of China, as well as other regional powers. He also looks to the future and analyses how India’s policies might evolve in response to current and new challenges. The seminar will discuss the book’s main arguments and its geopolitical case for an India that is increasingly and positively engaged in both Asia and the broader world in pursuit of a pluralistic, open, and inclusive world order.

About the Author:

Shivshankar Menon is a Distinguished Fellow at CSEP and Visiting Professor at Ashoka University. Previously, he served as the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India (2010-2014) and as Foreign Secretary of India (2006 – 2009). In his career in India’s Foreign Service, he headed India’s missions to China, Pakistan, Israel and Sri Lanka. Currently, Menon is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. He is the author of Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy (2016).

Discussants:

Stephen Smith is a Professor of Public International Law at the University of Western Australia (UWA) since 2014. In a distinguished career spanning 20 years in the Australian Federal Parliament, Smith served as the Minister for Defence, and prior to that, as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Trade. He is currently the Chairman of archTIS, Chairman of Sapien Cyber, Chair of the Advisory Board of the UWA Public Policy Institute, a member of the Board of the Perth USAsia Centre and a Member of the Board of the LNG Marine Fuel Institute. Professor Smith was Federal Member for Perth for the Australian Labor Party from March 1993 until September 2013

Bilahari Kausikan served as Permanent Secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2013, having served as Second Permanent Secretary since 2001. He was subsequently Ambassador-at-Large until May 2018. Kausikan is currently the Chairman of the Middle East Institute, an autonomous institute of the National University of Singapore. His earlier diplomatic appointments include Deputy Secretary for South-east Asia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and Ambassador to the Russian Federation. He was educated at Raffles Institution, the University of Singapore and Columbia University in New York.

Moderator: Constantino Xavier is Fellow in Foreign Policy and Security Studies at CSEP, in New Delhi, where he leads the Sambandh Initiative on Regional Connectivity. He is also a Non-resident Fellow with the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on India’s foreign policy, particularly towards South Asia, the Bay of Bengal and the extended neighbourhood.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.