Indian Defence Diplomacy: A Handbook

The discipline of defence diplomacy picked up salience as an important component of foreign policy with most major militaries by the end of the Cold War. Particularly, in the last three decades, it has become a vital instrument in the diplomatic tool-bag of most countries.

However, notwithstanding its increasing utility to matters of national security, there is very little in the realm of ready-use academic literature available on the subject. This monograph has been accordingly conceived to introduce the concepts of defence diplomacy in a language easily understandable to the lay-reader.

The monograph is divided into three Sections. Section I starts by tracing the origins of the discipline and clarifies the basic concepts. Section II walks the reader through Indian specific experiences and its more contemporary military foreign cooperation practices. Section III acquaints the reader with the stakeholders in the government and concludes with proposals to vitalize the discipline.

About the Author

Cmde Roby Thomas joined MP-IDSA as Senior Fellow in August 2019. An alumnus of the first three-year Naval Academy Course and Naval War College, he has held a wide ambit of operational tenures on different classes of ships. He has also held Director level appointments at Naval Headquarters, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff and Strategic Forces Command. He was Commodore, Foreign Cooperation II at Naval Headquarters, prior to joining MP-IDSA.

Cmde Roby Thomas joined MP-IDSA as Senior Fellow in August 2019. An alumnus of the first three-year Naval Academy Course and Naval War College, he has held a wide ambit of operational tenures on different classes of ships. He has also held Director level appointments at Naval Headquarters, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff and Strategic Forces Command. He was Commodore, Foreign Cooperation II at Naval Headquarters, prior to joining MP-IDSA.