The Foreign Service Journal, June 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2014 29 As in every country, crafting domestic consensus on foreign policy issues has become hugely important for New Delhi. greater diversity in terms of the disciplines studied at university, regions represented and family backgrounds than ever before. Those who have not studied at English-medium universities start their careers with a significant drawback. But the Foreign Service Institute addresses this gap with special English courses. This also needs strong professional focus so that at conference drafting groups and in negotiations, all officials have fluent English-language mastery. While greater diversity is a trend in most diplomatic ser- vices, in India, expanded affirmative reservations in favor of the underprivileged seemingly lead to varying standards within each cohort. But through their performance, most young officials have shown themselves to be highly competent and dedicated. In the two decades since I retired, this impression has been reinforced during visits to Indian embassies in different countries, where I encounter confident young officials who are articulate and have mastery of their dossiers. The current generation is equal to the best. Going forward, however, the IFS clearly needs more man- power and a more systematic approach to administration (in place of the tendency toward ad hoc-ism), as well as greater enforcement of accountability, better institutional capacity and improved home connections, including domestic public diplo- macy and strong leadership. In Asia and in almost all the developing world, exchanges do not take place among diplomatic services as they do, for example, within the European Union and in a wide cluster of Western countries through an annual process initiated by Canada a decade ago. Nor do we find any bilateral or regional dialogue among foreign ministries of developing countries on professional issues, be it in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Such conversations have obvious value, since foreign ministries confront similar circumstances in dealing with the international system. n