The Ministry of External Affairs engages the civil society not only within India but abroad too in a dialogue to explain the compulsions behind the foreign policy concerns and note how the Indian foreign policy is perceived. The first such dialogue took place in February 2007 in London and the second on The Strategic Shape of the World in Delhi in December 2007. The theme was selected to examine key issues of global importance and how they affect international relations and strategic alliances including the concerns regarding the deepening of globalisation, international security and stability, transnational economic dimensions, energy security and climatic change among other issues. The dialogue also provided an opportunity to discuss Indian'srole in the global order and its impact on the regional and global environment.
The dialogue was divided into three plenary sessions?The Strategic Shape of the World, International Terrorism and Energy Security. During the proceedings of the first session, Manpreet Sethi said that Indo-US nuclear cooperation will make India a global player and gain leverage too in the sense that it would be a take-off point to help in reaching the destination faster while acting as a force multiplier in terms of the economy, energy and other high-end technologies that would become available to India. As for nuclear energy, it could act as a supplement to the large amount of energy that India is already generating. However, the importance of nuclear weapons as a deterrent and national security strategies remain, if not extending to deterring biological and chemical weapon attacks.
S.K. Singh, former Foreign Secretary said that the policy of non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign States is no longer in use what with the accent on human rights. He points out that human right considerations being applied even despite the problems created by the Bush Government in smaller countries, smaller powers are far more while larger and more powerful powers are far less.
Regarding energy security, Shebonti Ray Dadwal said that in oil markets, some oil producing countries have only one resource to sell and that is oil on which their revenues and economic growth depend. The price of oil has to be set right for both the consumers and the producers so that it can work ?both ways if there is a kind of a consensus on how much to produce, setting the price right, etc.? Secondly, the supply pools should open up their energy sector to foreign investment and employ the-state-of-the-art technology to enhance production. Finally production of bio-fuels should be encouraged to obtain energy security.
This book could prove useful to policy makers, researchers, academics working in the field of international politics and foreign policy.
(Sage Publications, B1/1-1 Mohan Cooperative Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044.)
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