by John Shaw
Kishan S. Rana, a former senior diplomat in India’s Foreign Service, is convinced that embassies are now more important than ever and that ambassadors who are creative and innovative can play a pivotal role in advancing their countries’ interests.
In an interview with The Washington Diplomat, Rana said ambassadors should recognize that revolutions in transportation and communications have fundamentally changed their jobs
. But rather than lament the loss of certain powers and responsibilities, they should seize on the opportunity to be more relevant in other areas.
“The ambassador’s plenipotentiary powers have long withered,” he said. “The most apt analogy for the ambassador today is with the chief
executive of a country unit of a transnational enterprise.”
Rana pointed out that although modern ambassadors do not determine war and peace between states, they do play an important role in reducing tensions and developing relationships. “In the entire government, the ambassador is the one who has the best overview, in real time, of the current shape and content of the bilateral relationship entrusted to his charge. This produces an opportunity for bargaining, linkage and tradeoffs, across the full panorama of issues in which the countries are engaged.”
Warm, energetic and good-humored, Rana said his professional life has been dominated by a love of diplomacy. “From the time I remember, joining the Foreign Service was my dream.”
Rana entered the Indian Foreign Service in 1960. Out of the 20,000 students who took the national civil service examination that year, only 10 were invited into the Indian Foreign Service.
During his 35-year career, Rana served in Hong Kong, Beijing and Geneva, specializing in Chinese affairs and economic diplomacy. Additionally, he was India’s ambassador to Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Mauritius and Germany. He retired in 1995 but continues to write about and teach diplomacy.
Rana is a professor emeritus at the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi and a senior fellow at the DiploFoundation. He is the author of “Inside Diplomacy,” “Bilateral Diplomacy” and “The 21st Century Ambassador: Plenipotentiary to Chief Executive.”
Rana vigorously disputes the view that embassies are a relic of an age that has long since passed. The embassy, he argues, is the co-manager of bilateral relationships, and there is no other agency of government that has a better view of the totality of relations in any foreign capital.
Rana said the modern embassy is vital not only because it can build critical relationships that require direct and sustained cultivation, but also because it can identify rising stars in the host nation’s political and diplomatic communities, understand connections between issues, and monitor the full complexities of a bilateral relationship.
Rana said good ambassadors are worth their weight in gold. “There is a greater functional necessity for the resident ambassador today than at any previous time since Italy launched this institution in the 15th century,” he said.
Rana acknowledged that some may view this assertion with skepticism, accustomed as they are to the refrain that ambassadors have become marginalized by technology and instant communications and serve mostly as glorified innkeepers for visitors from home.
“The ambassador ideally integrates into the structures of the home establishment, especially the foreign ministry, and becomes a participant in the policymaking and decision process, relying on instant communication to overcome distance and the traditional barriers of the missions and headquarters mindsets,” he said.
According to Rana, the modern ambassador should be skilled in working with the host government, speaking to the general public, and interacting with specialists in areas ranging from science and technology, to culture, politics and economics. This in turn demands an ability to master diversity and complexity.
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