Shivshankar Menon is a distinguished fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. His long career in public service spans diplomacy, national security, atomic energy, disarmament policy, and India's relations with its neighbors and major global powers. Prior to joining Brookings, Menon served as national security advisor to the Indian Prime Minister from January 2010 to May 2014 and as India's foreign secretary from October 2006 to August 2009. He currently serves as chairman of the advisory board of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi.
Shivshankar Menon's Choices is a short book concentrating on
five major challenges that Indian leaders have had to confront
since independence, chosen because he was involved in all of them.
It is written simply and powerfully. As Ambassador, High
Commissioner, Foreign Secretary, and National Security Adviser,
Menon played roles that were not insubstantial, but he writes with
modesty and objectivity. The last chapter of the book begins with a
quote from Mahatma Gandhi that "True power speaks softly. It has no
reason to shot." That describes not just Menon but also the India
he portrays."- George Yeo, former Foreign Minister, Singapore;
"Finally an authoritative, accessible, and analytical account of
contemporary Indian foreign policy, written with sophistication and
style. Menon's exposition of five key choices is absolutely
required reading for anyone interested in why India does what it
does. It has no peer."- Kanti Bajpai, Wilmar Chair in Asian
Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University
of Singapore;
"This is a must-read for anyone interested in how at least one of
India's most sophisticated geopolitical and security thinkers sees
the world, India's place in it, and its relationship with the
United States."- Vipin Narang, War on the Rocks;
"Menon's book is an excellent and authoritative guide to how some
of the stars in India's foreign-policy leadership think about the
inevitable trade-offs they deal with."- Teresita C. Schaffer,
Survival;
"Written by one of India's premier foreign policy intellectuals and
practitioners since the country's independence, Shivshankar Menon's
brilliant analysis shines a powerful beam into the shadows of
Indian government decisionmaking in recent years. An indispensable
book for anyone who wants to understand Indian foreign policy past,
present, and future."- Robert Blackwill, former United States
Ambassador to India;
"Shivshankar Menon brings coherence, insight, and narrative verve
to crucial episodes in India's emergence over the 40-plus years
that span his distinguished and eclectic career. Many of the
choices he writes about benefited from his own sagacity. In
addition to his skill as a diplomat and policymaker on behalf of
his own country, he has a rare gift of understanding the sources of
other countries' sense of their own aspirations, interests, and
anxieties. These virtues make for a brilliant contribution to the
annals of international relations."- Strobe Talbott, President,
Brookings Institution and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
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