2022/01/01 by Chirayu Thakkar
Social Sciences · #Diplomacy #Economic Justice #Economic history #History #International court #International law #Law #Memoir #New delhi #Political science #Politics #Security council #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #Victory
paper · doi:10.1093/ia/iiab248
openalex publication_date 2022/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In a nutshell, India vs UK is a gripping tale of an otherwise insipid UN election in which India bested the UK for a judgeship at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), despite British privileges and leverages. Recounted by India's former Permanent Representative (PR) to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, it is full of diplomatic anecdotes providing glimpses into both New Delhi's ‘full-court press’, involving the entire diplomatic machinery, and the subterranean diplomacy of New York. Since 1991, only two Indian PRs—Chinmaya Gharekhan and Hardeep Puri, who steered India's term as a UN Security Council elected member in 1991–2 and 2011–12, respectively—have produced book-length memoirs describing their encounters at the UN. Otherwise, there does not seem to be a significant constituency in India for dispatches from New York. Ambassador Akbaruddin led India's election victory for yet another UNSC term (2021–2), but retired before the term commenced. However, in India vs UK, he has chosen to recount another triumph.