Two Decades of India’s Look East Policy: Partnership for Peace, Progress and Prosperity by Amar Nath Ram (ed.)

Two Decades of India’s Look East Policy edited by Amar Nath Ram is a compilationof scholarly contributions by 12 former ambassadors, an eminent academic-diplomat, a maritime strategy expert and a journalist. As a diplomat who was, as it were, present at the creation, Ram is eminently qualified to comment on how the Look East policy (LEP) has evolved since it was formulated.

The book is in six parts focusing separately on each decade of the LEP, and charts out its future trajectory. Perspectives from the academic, strategic and media spheres find a place in the final part of the book. In the first part of the book the genesis of the LEP is traced by Preet Malik and Sheel Kant Sharma. The second part, which examines the first decade of the LEP, includes chapters by Salman Haidar, A.N. Ram, S.T. Devare and Prabhakar Menon. Part Three covers the second decade of the LEP and has articles by Shyam Saran and Suryakanthi Tripathi. Part Four deals with India’s post-summit engagement with the Asia Pacific region and includes articles by Rajiv Sikri and N. Ravi. The overview of the policy as well as the road ahead is examined by Kanwal Sibal and Lalit Mansingh in Part Five. Part Six, which deals with perspectives and views, consists of valuable insights from S.D. Muni, Vijay Sakhuja and Kalyani Shankar.