Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On May 11, 1998 , three nuclear devices exploded under the Thar, or Great Indian Desert, shaking the surrounding villagesand the rest of the world. The immediate effect was to plunge U.S.-India relations, already vexed by decades of tension and estrangement, into a new acrimonious standoff. The situation deteriorated further when Pakistan responded with a test of its own two weeks later. ENGAGING INDIA is the revealing, authoritative account of the intensive talks that the United States conducted on parallel tracks with the South Asian nuclear powers over the next two and a half years. Bill Clintons point man for that high-stakes diplomacy takes us behind the scenes of one of the most intriguing and consequential political dramas of our time, reconstructing what happenedand whywith narrative verve, rich human detail, and penetrating analysis. From June 1998 through September 2000, in the most extensive engagement ever between the United States and India, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh met fourteen times in seven countries on three continents. They grappled with the urgent issue of arms control and nonproliferation, but they also discussed their visions for the U.S.-Indian relationship, the potential for economic and strategic cooperation between the two countries, and the implications of Hindu nationalism for the evolution of Indian society, politics, and security. Their personal rapport helped raise the level of trust between the two governments. As a result, the United States was able to play a crucial role in defusing the crisis between India and Pakistan over the contested territory of Kashmir in the summer of 1999thus, perhaps, averting a war that could have escalated to nuclear conflagration. The Talbott-Singh dialogue laid the ground for Clintons transformational visit to South Asia in March 2000. That presidential journey opened a new chapter in relations between the United States and India. It also set the scene for U.S. cooperation with both India and Pakistan in the war against terror after September 11, 2001. In addition to providing an insiders perspective on a fascinating and instructive episode in diplomatic history, the story told here is vital background for understanding what happens next in a region that is home to nearly a quarter of humanity and that was, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, ￯﾿ﾽthe most dangerous place on earth.￯﾿ﾽ   Author Description: Strobe Talbott is president of the Brookings Institution. He served as deputy secretary of state from 1994 to 2001. For twenty-one years prior to his service in government, he was correspondent and columnist for Time magazine. He has written nine books, including The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy (Random House, 2002), a personal account of U.S. diplomacy toward Russia during the Clinton administration.

SYNOPSIS

India's successful test of a nuclear bomb in 1998 set off a top-level round of talks between the United States and India, conducted primarily by Deputy Secretary of State Talbott (now president of the Brookings Institution) and Indian Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh. The talks led to a much closer relationship between India and the United States before the move back towards Pakistan in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. Although the problem of nuclear proliferation was at the heart of the talks, Talbott makes clear in this diplomatic memoir that the discussions and issues were much more wide ranging. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

George Perkovich - Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

"With humor, grace and insight, Strobe Talbott chronicles a fascinating journey of diplomacy to overcome decades of U.S.-Indian estrangement and achieve a foundation of trust on which to build a relationship in the 21st century. Talbotts story reveals that while India will be neither an adversary nor a tool of the United States, it can be a friend."

Richard Haass - President, Council on Foreign Relations

Strobe Talbott has written a gem of a diplomatic memoir. This ultimate insider account of American efforts to steer relations with and between India and Pakistan after their 1998 nuclear tests manages the hat trick of being candid, fair, and authoritative. The result is an ENGAGING INDIA that is truly engaging.

Richard G. Lugar - United States Senator

"Once again Strobe Talbott demonstrates not only a keen analytical mind but a writing style that is both insightful and easy on the readers mind as well as the eyes. From the time that Assistant Secretary of State Phyllis Oakley informs him of the Indian nuclear test to the completion of Talbotts marathon dialogues with his Indian counterpart, the reader feels he or she has shared the issue with Strobe and made inputs to the American position. The book not only enlightens the reader on the ebbs and flows in the Indian-American bilateral relationship through both bad and improving times. It is a primer on the "do's" and "dont's" of nuclear diplomacy."

Kishore Mahbubani - Author of Can Asians Think? and Beyond the Age of Innocence: A Worldly View of America (forthcoming)

"The recent reconciliation and reengagement of America with India was not inevitable. Suspicions ran deep. The geopolitics were messy. But Strobe Talbott and Jaswant Singh reached out across the divide and, in a Herculean effort, pulled their two countries together and, in so doing, changed the chemistry of the globe. This triumph over history is now recorded in a compelling memoir. Strobe provides both engaging first-person accounts and deep reflections. As a foreign policy aficionado, I found it a gripping read."

Teresita C. Schaffer - Director for South Asia, Center for Strategic and International Studies