The Aman ki Asha Initiative

A seven-member high profile Indian delegation, comprising media persons, writers, retired admirals and a former top diplomat, participated in the Aman Ki Asha series of discussions - "A Common Destiny" in Lahore. This unique initiative of the 'Jang Group' and the 'Times of India' brought together people who are leaders in their respective fields. Former Indian foreign secretary Salman Haider, Prem Shankar Jha, Amitabh Mattoo, and Admiral Ramu Ramdas (retd) were few of the members of the delegation. The intelligentsia from India and Pakistan termed the dialogue a big leap towards understanding each other’s perspective on contentious issues and evolving recommendations for their respective governments for easing tensions.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Mattoo said, “Conflict resolution will not guarantee sustainable peace and friendly bilateral relations but developing mutual bilateral relations and friendly ties would result in conflict resolution and neutral perspective building.” Commending the Aman ki Asha project, he said: “Understanding each other’s perspective is the key; and the need of the hour is to move forward on parallel grounds of conflict resolution and bilateral ties making either one conditional to the other would create a vicious cycle with no results.”

Prof. Mattoo to be IAIS President

Professor Amitabh Mattoo will be the first President of the Indian Association of International Studies (IAIS). He was appointed President at the inaugural function at New Delhi of IAIS which was presided over by the Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari. The organization is the Indian Counterpart of the International Studies Association, headquartered at Arizona, USA, and will represent India at the next global meeting at Montreal in Canada later this year. Speaking on the occasion, Ansari complimented Mattoo as a visionary thinker and a great institution builder, and he believed that improving the study of research of international relations in India was the need of the hour and there was no better person than Prof Mattoo to lead the organization at this juncture.

His new book "Shaping India's Foreign Policy:People, Politics and Places" (co-edited with Happymon Jacob) was also released on the occasion.

(Source: State Times,10/04/10)