Table Of ContentDoes India Negotiate?
Does India Negotiate?
Karthik Nachiappan
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Acknowledgements
This book is the culmination of years of research and writing. I owe
a profound debt to many people without whose support this work
would not have reached this stage. Intellectually, I am deeply indebted
to Srinath Raghavan for his support and counsel as this project took
shape. Rudra Chaudhuri played a signifi cant role shepherding the proj-
ect at the latter stages, pushing me to be as clear and thorough as pos-
sible. Sunil Khilnani kindly offered ideas on India’s role in the world
and tips on how to make this project historically grounded and policy
relevant. Mervyn Frost and Kate Sullivan de Estrada were thoughtful
examiners providing constructive feedback on the dissertation on
which this book is based.
I am thankful for the two anonymous reviewers at Oxford University
Press whose insightful comments helped me retool certain parts of the
manuscript. In addition, I want to thank the OUP team for their support
with regard to the project. Various parts of this book received generous
feedback from participants at panels and workshops at Ashoka University,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the School of Oriental
and African Studies (SOAS). My sincere thanks to Mahesh Rangarajan,
Avinash Paliwal, Nicolas Blarel, Milan Vaishnav, and Tom Carothers for
their invitations to present and their constructive comments.
I am also indebted to a sharp cohort of friends—Rohan Mukherjee,
Avinash Paliwal, and Vipul Dutta, rising scholars themselves, for their
friendship, support, and candour. Rohan invited me to contribute a
chapter on India’s multilateral positions for his edited volume, an effort
which helped clarify ideas central to the dissertation. I am grateful to
x Acknowledgements
W.P.S. Sidhu for being an insightful sounding board on the topic of
Indian multilateralism. Kanti Bajpai has been a fount of kindness,
generosity, and encouragement for years.
The research immensely gained from the perspectives of those who
were involved in the negotiations covered in this book—K. Srinath
Reddy, P.C. Gupta, Bhavani Thyagarajan, Shoba John, Salim Habayeb,
Vineet Gill Munish, Srinivas Tata, Dhirendra Sinha, T.P. Sreenivasan,
Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, Mukul Sanwal, Darryl D’Monte, Muchkund
Dubey, Achin Vanaik, and Anil Suraj. I am grateful to them and other
individuals who wish to remain anonymous for refl ecting on their
professional and personal experiences. Renfei Liu provided unsparing
thoughts on the UN system which helped me think through the larger
implications of why rising powers like China and India matter to the
international order. At the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (NUS),
I was fortunate to be a part of a research project led by former Dean
Kishore Mahbubani that investigated what Asian powers brought and
could bring to global governance writ large, a spur to this research.
My family and friends have, willingly and unwillingly, lived with
this research as long as I have. I owe them for their forbearance, friend-
ship, support, and love. In Delhi, Mohit Sinha and Mathew Koshy
were always present when the time came to step away from the din
of fi eldwork. They also introduced me to a wide range of acquain-
tances which made frequent sojourns to Delhi endlessly interesting.
In Singapore, Asanga Gunawansa helped me navigate an unexpectedly
challenging professional period and continues to be an invaluable
source of brotherly advice. In London, my cousin Poornima made my
transition to research life seamless, giving me a life and lifeline outside
the university. It is a matter of deep regret that she is no longer here as
I write these words. In Washington DC, our stint has been enriched
and sustained by friends who form our small diplomatic community—
Jeevan Singh and Sima Aghazadeh, Gavin Roch and Victoria Colling,
and Natasha Atmadja and Tim Seow.
My parents, Prema and Manickem Nachiappan, have been supporting
my professional journey with equipoise. My parents-in-law, Jalaja
Menon and Nirmalan Pillai, have been unfl inchingly kind, generous,
and supportive and placed more faith in my capabilities than was
justifi able. They repeatedly stressed the virtues of doing a PhD when
I was half sold on the prospect and never failed to remind me of its
Acknowledgements xi
values while I was labouring away. My sisters-in-law, Priya Pillay and
Vidhya Pillay, and brother-in-law, Alex Yeo, have been key parts of this
endeavour from the get-go, helping in countless ways. Arjun and Maya,
my nephew and niece, continue to be sources of delight and distrac-
tion. Our lovable Lab, Milo, deserves special credit for bringing love
and unpredictability to our life and a routine to my writing. He is the
best writing companion.
Nothing would have been possible without my wife—Mridhula
Pillay. I owe her everything. Her unstinting faith in me and this project
has seen it through. She gave me more comfort, support, love, and
affection than I could have ever asked for. Her wisdom, judgement,
irrepressible love of life, boundless curiosity, and penchant for putting
me in place makes life tick and worth living. I dedicate this work to her.
