Former India foreign secretary Shyam Saran has had a ringside view of the most critical events and shifts in Indian foreign policy in the new millennium, including the epochal India-US nuclear deal. In this magisterial book, part memoir and part thesis on India’s international relations since Independence, Saran discerns the threads that tie together his experiences as a diplomat. Using the prism of Kautilya’s Arthashastra and other ancient treatises on statecraft, saran shows the historical sources of India’s world view. He looks at India’s neighborhood and the changing wider world through this lens and arrives at fascinating conclusions. This book also take the reader behind the closed doors of the most nail-biting negotiations and top-level interactions.