i wrote this before the actual meeting last week. i am still trying to understand if the 'ambush' -- presenting dossiers about 3 serving pakistani army officers as terrorists -- was a good tactic. (musharraf, the commando, would approve of the tactic). is it good strategy? ok, what *is* our goal here? is it to be popular with the americans or to reduce terrorism?
but the ambush certainly meant that for once it was the pakistanis who were flustered (remember news reports that they brought a 'face reader' who could identify the true feelings behind what was being said! i am expecting a hypnotist at the next talks, or a rasputin!). their guy simply lost his cool because he was being publicly accused of being a representative of a terrorist state. i hope this was all as planned, and not an accident. mushy for instance seriously ambushed us post-agra, and we were not prepared for it.
to those members of the foreign service who read this -- i am bccing several -- i urge you to take this as constructive feedback and an expression of an outsider's bafflement at why indian negotiators often seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. please don't take offense -- none is intended, merely an attempted diagnosis of what ails the system.
my antidote would be to make the 'arthashastra' compulsory bed-time reading :-) it is surely a very impressive and thoughtful text of statecraft.
i don't know if it's just me, but i found the following nytimes editorial -- which must reflect obama's official thinking -- particularly odious and patronizing. they have no respect for india, do they? and why *is* that, given how much they grovel to china these days? isn't that also the fault of poor positioning? do they think they own us, or can sway us with a little meaningless sweet-talk and flattery while the hard cash goes to others?
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Once Kissinger said to Nixon in 1971. We just need to make a show of friendship and goodwill towards the Indians, no need to deliver on the ground, for some strange reason the show and intent of friendship is good enough for the Indians. This typically has defined US and world policy towards us. Few good words of praise and we feel elated and proud of our accomplishments. This recently happened during Obamas China visit and just before MMS visit to the US when Obama soften the blow to India and MMS by using some false words of praise.
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/
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