It is a basic, commonsensical thought that in strategy and so much else, you must put yourself in the shoes of others if you want to deal with them. It is one of the key things I tell students when I teach foreign policy and national security courses.
Stephen Walt, Harvard political scientist, recently made the same point in an article on “empathy” in international affairs in the US magazine, Foreign Policy. Constantino Xavier of the Indian think-tank Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CESP) endorsed Walt’s view in insisting that it is “impossible to understand India’s regional policies in South Asia without looking at Delhi from the perspective” of its neighbours.
India’s diplomats are paid to do many things, including lie for our country, but they are also paid to tell us the truth about how others see us, especially in our neighbourhood. I am not privy to what they write and say, but they could do with help from academics and think-tank analysts. Whereas our diplomats and intelligence officers switch roles and responsibilities every few years, researchers can spend an entire career on a subject and bring much-needed depth of knowledge.
As I tweeted in response to Xavier, it is an absurdity that given India’s population of 1. 3 billion people, we cannot field even 20 well-trained China and Pakistan specialists. The emphasis in the previous sentence is on the word “well-trained”. Happily, things are getting somewhat better with respect to China specialists. But on Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, that is not the case.
It is a basic,
commonsensical
thought
that in strategy and
so
much else, you
must
put yourself in the shoes of others if you want to deal with them. It is one of the key things I
tell
students when I teach foreign policy and national security courses.
Stephen Walt, Harvard political scientist, recently made the same point in an article on “empathy” in international affairs in the US magazine, Foreign Policy.
Constantino
Xavier of the Indian
think
-tank
Centre
for Social and Economic Progress (
CESP
) endorsed Walt’s view in insisting that it is “impossible to understand India’s regional policies in South Asia without looking at Delhi from the perspective” of its
neighbours
.
India’s diplomats
are paid
to do
many
things, including lie for our country,
but
they are
also
paid to
tell
us the truth about how others
see
us,
especially
in our
neighbourhood
. I am not privy to what they write and say,
but
they could do with
help
from academics and
think
-tank analysts. Whereas our diplomats and intelligence officers switch roles and responsibilities every few years, researchers can spend an entire career on a subject and bring much-needed depth of knowledge.
As I tweeted in response to Xavier, it is an absurdity that
given
India’s population of 1. 3 billion
people
, we cannot field even 20 well-trained China and Pakistan specialists. The emphasis in the previous sentence is on the word “well-trained”.
Happily
, things are getting somewhat better with respect to China specialists.
But
on Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka,
that is
not the case.