experts
about
Vijay Gokhale is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service in January 2020 after a diplomatic career that spanned thirty-nine years. From January 2018 to January 2020, he served as the foreign secretary of India.
Prior to his term as foreign secretary, he had served as India’s high commissioner to Malaysia from January 2010 to October 2013, as ambassador of India to the Federal Republic of Germany from October 2013 to January 2016, and as ambassador of India to the People’s Republic of China from January 2016 to October 2017. He has served as head of the India-Taipei Association, in Taiwan, from July 2003 to January 2007. During his time in the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs, he has also worked in key positions in the East Asia Division, including as the joint secretary (Director General) for East Asia from March 2007 to December 2009.
He has worked extensively on matters relating to the Indo-Pacific region with a special emphasis on Chinese politics and diplomacy. Since his retirement from the Foreign Service, Gokhale has contributed opinion pieces to the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Times of India, the Hindu, and the Indian Express. He has written three books on China, namely Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest (2021), The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India (2021), and After Tiananmen: The Rise of China (2022).
He lives in Pune, India and is also a distinguished faculty at the Symbiosis International University in Pune, since January 2021.
He speaks English, Hindi, Marathi, and Mandarin Chinese. He did a master’s degree in History from the University of Delhi in 1980. He studied Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese University of Hongkong in 1983-84.
affiliations
areas of expertise
education
MA, History, University of Delhi; BA, History, University of Delhilanguages
English, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, MarathiAll work from Vijay Gokhale
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Carnegie India is hosting a book talk of Crosswinds: Nehru, Zhou and the Anglo-American Competition over China by Vijay Gokhale, to be followed by a panel discussion on “Geopolitics Today: The State of the World”.
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- Vijay Gokhale,
- Srinath Raghavan,
- T.S. Tirumurti,
- P.S. Raghavan,
- Gaitri Issar Kumar
When the quinquennial electoral cycle concludes by middle of 2024, GOI will turn its attention to new policy priorities. China, presumably, would be one of these.
This episode dives into the history of India's relationship with China during the first decade of the People's Republic of China's existence (1949-1959). It explores how India navigated the complex geopolitical landscape amidst the "forgotten" competition between the declining British Empire and the emerging superpower, the United States.
Vijay Gokhale speaks with Ananth Krishnan about his book 'Cross Winds: Nehru, Zhou And The Anglo-American Competition Over China' and present-day relations between China and India.
This book, based on archival material, outlines India’s efforts to craft a foreign policy in the context of the Anglo–American competition in the Far East. The roles played by the towering personalities of that era are woven into the narrative to paint a picture of the nuts and bolts of Indian diplomacy during the early years of the nation.
This paper examines the reasons why existing agreements and measures between India and China to preserve peace and tranquility along the LAC were not entirely successful, how both sides may deal with border stabilization in the post-2020 scenario, and the possible options for India to build back a framework for peace and tranquility along the border areas.
Outwardly a champion of democracy and freedom, Kissinger may have cracked the Chinese regime open but deceit and perfidy marked his engagement with New Delhi.
In this analytical piece on "Negotiating with China" Vijay Gokhale argues that the secretiveness, stage-setting and theatricality of Chinese counterparts should not throw Western negotiators off their game. It is the result of a workshop held at MERICS in Spring 2023.
Vijay Gokhale and Shivshankar Menon share their views on India-China competition, the potential for cooperation or crisis, and what it means for India’s partners.
The smorgasbord of Allen’s suggestions suggests that while America has identified that it has a problem with China, it has no clear idea of what to do about it.