Strategic Conundrums: Reshaping India’s Foreign Policy

Rajiv Sikri, Penguin Random House India, 2024, 298 pp., Rs. 699 (hbk), ISBN: 9780143464570.

What are the domestic factors shaping India’s foreign policy? Where do the opportunities and challenges for India’s foreign policy come from? How can India navigate a tumultuous world where events within and beyond its control impact it?

Ambassador Rajiv Sikri answers these questions in Strategic Conundrums: Reshaping India’s Foreign Policy, which builds on his previous book Challenges and Strategies: Rethinking India’s Foreign Policy (Sage Publications, 2009). Strategic Conundrums does not have a core argument but takes stock of Indian foreign policy developments since 2014, when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power for the first time, while also analysing the trajectory of diplomatic relations with countries before 2014. The depth of analysis in the book, drawn from the author’s experience as a diplomat is evident in the analysis.