THE TALK
India and China have different narratives and understandings of their relationship in history, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, both India and China have changed beyond recognition and those narratives of the past are potent instruments of statecraft. The relationship is in crisis, and faces an uncertain future.
The Talk at Manthan will discuss that past, how the relationship came to its present condition, and what we might expect in the foreseeable future.
Ambassador Shivshankar Menon knows more about the issue than almost anyone else.
Shivshankar Menon, Ambassador
Ambassador Shivshankar Menon is one of the finest and most accomplished diplomats and civil servants India has had.
He was Ambassador or High Commissioner to China, Pakistan, Sri Lanks and Israel.
He was National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Jan 2010-May 2014 and Foreign Secretary of India, October 2006-July 2009.
He is currently a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University, India; Chairman, Advisory Board, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; Distinguished Fellow of with Centre for Social and Economic Progress; Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore; Member, Board of Trustees, International Crisis Group; and, a Distinguished Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute, New York.
In 2016 he published Choices; Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy. He has a book on India in Asian Geopolitics; The Past, Present forthcoming in early 2021.
He has been a Fisher Family Fellow at the Kennedy School, Harvard University, and Richard Wilhelm Fellow at MIT in 2015. He was chosen one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2010.
