The post-WW2 world order is dead. The UN doesn't work. The WTO can't function. Multilateralism has collapsed. And the world is now in a dangerous "interregnum" — a period of fragmentation, conflict, and competing alliances where every country is fighting to shape what comes next.
So what does this mean for India?
In this conversation with Roshan Cariappa, Ambassador Dr. Mohan Kumar — Former Indian Ambassador to France and Bahrain, India's lead negotiator at the WTO/GATT for nearly a decade, Professor of Diplomatic Practice at OP Jindal Global University, and Chairman of RIS — takes us inside the rooms where India's biggest global negotiations actually happen.
This is not theory. This is a 40-year practitioner explaining how it really works.
We cover:
- Why the liberal world order has "certainly ended"
- The non-polar world and India's multi-alignment strategy
- "No light at the end of the tunnel" — his honest diagnosis
- Can India be a Vishwa Guru? The truth about DPI and AI
- The Poverty Veto — why 800M on dole holds India back
- What really happens behind closed doors in negotiations
- His toughest negotiations: TRIPS Doha and Paris climate
- The Nvidia comparison — India's economy = one company
- Why India can't have a confrontation with China
- Trump-XI "bilateral strategic stability" and India
- Jaishankar's "three mutuals" approach with China
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Cold open: The world order is dead
00:54 Are we witnessing the collapse of the post-Cold War order?
02:13 "The liberal international order has certainly ended"
03:42 What changed about globalization
05:05 Was it Trump — or structural factors?
07:00 The "non-polar" world explained
08:13 India's multi-alignment strategy
11:04 Fragmentation of the world order
12:08 "I've never seen this deficit of cooperation in 40 years"
13:25 "There is no light at the end of the tunnel"
14:39 Can India step up as Vishwa Guru?
16:27 "800 million on dole is dragging India down"
17:52 India's 1991 redux moment — bite the bullet
20:26 Multilateralism has collapsed — UN and WTO
21:11 The huge gap between US, China and the rest
23:36 What actually happens behind closed doors
25:35 The brief, the non-negotiables, the tradeables
27:21 The Poverty Veto — Mohan's original concept
31:37 The toughest negotiation: TRIPS in Doha (2001)
33:25 The Paris climate accords — India's red lines
36:20 Is there bipartisan consensus on foreign policy?
38:14 Pranab Mukherjee's all-party meeting idea
40:08 What makes an effective negotiator?
44:33 Why "anyone can become Ambassador overnight" is wrong
45:07 Should India look beyond the IFS cadre?
49:00 Why India can't have a Jared Kushner
49:26 40 years of negotiation — how India's leverage has grown
51:32 India = the size of Nvidia ($4 trillion comparison)
53:00 "9-10% growth for 10 years — the world will be at your feet"
58:43 The final question — US-China dynamics
1:00:00 Trump-XI "bilateral strategic stability"
1:01:44 Why India can't have a confrontation with China
1:02:13 Jaishankar's "three mutuals" with China
1:03:13 Closing thoughts
📚 AMBASSADOR MOHAN KUMAR'S BOOK
India's Moment: Changing Power Equations around the World (HarperCollins, 2023) — launched by Dr. S. Jaishankar.
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/Indias-Moment-Changing-Equations-around/dp/935699952X
Amazon (US): https://www.amazon.com/Indias-Moment-Changing-Equations-around/dp/935699952X
Kindle: https://www.amazon.in/Indias-Moment-Changing-Equations-around-ebook/dp/B0CKP8DSJX
Also: Negotiation Dynamics of the WTO (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
🎙️ ABOUT THE GUEST
Ambassador Dr. Mohan Kumar served 36 years in the Indian Foreign Service, retiring as India's Ambassador to France. He was previously India's Ambassador to Bahrain. He was India's lead negotiator at GATT and the WTO for nearly a decade, including the WTO Ministerial Conferences in Marrakesh (1994), Seattle (1999) and Doha (2001). He played a key role in the Paris climate change accords. Today he is Dean, Office of International Affairs at OP Jindal Global University, Professor of Diplomatic Practice, and Chairman of RIS — the Delhi-based think tank on trade and development. PhD from Sciences Po Paris. MBA from Delhi University.
🌐 https://ambmokumar.com
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