From savouring the cultural and culinary delights of Vienna to coping with Pakistani chicanery, and from fun time in Manila to high octane multilateral diplomacy in Geneva, Satish Chandra’s long Foreign Service career covers a wide variety of experiences. A Life Well Spent: Four Decades in the Indian Foreign Service transports the reader on a journey through the author’s career tracing his progression from an IFS probationer to Deputy National Security Advisor. In the process, it provides valuable insights into the highly variegated, exciting, and challenging work of an IFS officer. These insights are vividly brought to life as the author has not shied away from sharing the exchanges he had with many notables, such as Nawaz Sharif, A.B. Vajpayee, Narasimha Rao and Pervez Musharraf. The book is enriched with fascinating vignettes of some of the countries to which the author was assigned and their relations with India. Some of the major issues touched upon include the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, developments in Pakistan in the lead-up to the 1971 conflict, India’s recognition of Western Sahara, defusing India–Pakistan tensions consequent upon Operation Brass Tacks, , the initiation of the India–Pakistan composite dialogue process, Blunting Pakistan’s anti-India jihad in the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1993–4, disarmament negotiations pertaining to CTBT and FMCT, the Kargil conflict, the setting up of the National Security Council system and security reform in India. A must-read for all interested in knowing what happens behind the scenes in the Service or choosing this as a career.
