RAISINA DIALOGUE 2018

Raisina Dialogue is a diplomatic conference held every year which hosts diplomats, foreign secretaries and ambassadors from all over the world and provides a platform for high-level diplomatic engagements and discussions over a wide range of topics related to foreign policy, social change, economic and political development and the same. This year, the dialogue was held at the Taj Diplomatic Enclave, New Delhi from January 16 to January 18 jointly by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF). The Dialogue was based on the topic –Managing Disruptive Transitions, Ideas, Institutions and Idioms. It was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

The dialogue hosted eminent personalities like Mrs. Sushma Swaraj( Minister of External Affairs) General Bipin Rawat , Mr. M.J.Akbar (Minister of State External Affairs), Sashi Tharoor, Smriti Irani, Suresh Prabhu , Ram Madhav, Stephen Harper ( Former PM, Canada), Kenneth Juster( US Ambassador to India),  Carl Bildt ( Former PM, Sweden), Hardeep Singh Puri, C. Rajamohan, General V.K.Singh , Yalda Hakim( BBC World News), Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali( Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh), Vasantha Senanyake( Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka), Shankar Das Bairagi ( Foreign Secretary, Nepal), S.Jaishankar among others. 

A range of topics was discussed that included-

• Women in Foreign and Security Policy

• Russia’s Next Geopolitical Maneuver

• The Terror State: Innovative Solutions to New Threats

• Policy, Politics and Gender

• The killer Bytes: Countering Violent Extremism

• Strat-Con: Emerging Security Dynamics in the Indo- Pacific

• The End of Liberal Order: The Beginning of the Asian Century

• Towards EU: Seeking Leadership in the new world order

• Fragile World: Preventing a Scorched Earth

• Nuclear Unpredictability: Managing a Global Nuclear Framework

• Digitial Money: Innovating with India for the world 

• Conflicts, Rights and the Machine: Addressing the Evolving Methods of Warfare

• Regulations and Safeguards of Cybersecurity

• A Disruptive World: Solutions for tomorrow

• Re-imaging the Commonwealth for the 21st century

Mrs Sushma Swaraj identified Terrorism as the “mother of all disruptions” and said that “Terrorism anywhere can challenge security everywhere”. Therefore, fuller discourse and greater accountability is a must. The necessity, therefore, is to come up with flexible grouping focused on challenges. Ram Madhav too gave important insights regarding the government’s vision of the new foreign policy objectives to be undertaken by India.He emphasized on 12 strategic realizations that need to be understood by the world regarding India. While there are enormous opportunities, there is the presence of challenges at the same time. Under these circumstances, India needs to move from multipolarism to multi-stakeholder(ism) and be flexible enough to intellectually cope with the disruptive challenges coming in its way.

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