A essay on India's Foreign Policy Priorities For The Youth.
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Let me explain at the outset: as someone that retired from the Indian Foreign Service, I have a vested interest in this subject. For the past two decades, I have been a teacher of diplomatic studies, mainly through distance learning courses run by a small NGO in Europe called DiploFoundation, and I have written about a dozen books, mainly on diplomacy. This has given opportunity to compare the way foreign affairs issues are handled in other countries; participants from almost 100 countries have joined these classes. This has given insights into the study of international affairs. As the Greeks said, ‘we learn by teaching’. I remain a student, like all of you, even if a little older.
Globalization has produced greater interdependence between countries, economies and regions. This is a major and even irreversible trend of our age. A few countries play the role of ‘outliers’, those that deliberately choose to stay isolated and resist foreign contact, but even they cannot remain unconnected. In effect all states, large or small, rich or poor, are interdependent and mutually engaged with one another as never before. North Korea is probably the most aloof and isolated country in the world, now a dictatorship run by its 3rd generation leader from a single family. But even that country finds it useful to develop its mountain regions to draw in high-paying foreign tourists, to earn the foreign exchange it needs for its essential imports; it also maintains an ono-and-off dialogue with South Korea, one of the most dynamic states in Asia. Others, which were considered relatively self-reliant and unwilling to engage in foreign contacts, such as Myanmar (formerly Burma), now join the mainstream, because they realize that their own economic progress, as well as stability and domestic harmony, depend on better connection with their neighbors, their region and with the global community. Think of the mobile phone in your hand – it has parts that come from different parts of the world; it was designed in yet some other country, and is driven by software that also came from elsewhere. That diversity applies also to the company that markets the phone. It adds up to a snapshot of globalization.
Globalization has produced greater interdependence between countries, economies and regions. This is a major and even irreversible trend of our age. A few countries play the role of ‘outliers’, those that deliberately choose to stay isolated and resist foreign contact, but even they cannot remain unconnected. In effect all states, large or small, rich or poor, are interdependent and mutually engaged with one another as never before. North Korea is probably the most aloof and isolated country in the world, now a dictatorship run by its 3rd generation leader from a single family. But even that country finds it useful to develop its mountain regions to draw in high-paying foreign tourists, to earn the foreign exchange it needs for its essential imports; it also maintains an ono-and-off dialogue with South Korea, one of the most dynamic states in Asia. Others, which were considered relatively self-reliant and unwilling to engage in foreign contacts, such as Myanmar (formerly Burma), now join the mainstream, because they realize that their own economic progress, as well as stability and domestic harmony, depend on better connection with their neighbors, their region and with the global community. Think of the mobile phone in your hand – it has parts that come from different parts of the world; it was designed in yet some other country, and is driven by software that also came from elsewhere. That diversity applies also to the company that markets the phone. It adds up to a snapshot of globalization.
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