“India & It’s Diplomacy Problem: When Confidence Outpaces Capacity”, ForPolIndia, November 08, 2025

“India speaks today in the idiom of power. The country wants to be seen as a civilisational state, a pole in a multi polar order, and the legitimate voice of the Global South. Its diplomats and press releases echo the language of parity- not partnership.

But the reality beneath this confidence is thinner than the rhetoric. India is playing at the scale of global powers without the structural depth to sustain it. The danger is not ambition. It is overestimation – the tendency to mistake volume for influence, and self-assurance for strategy.

The Scale Problem

For a state that speaks the language of great-power parity, its diplomatic machinery remains structurally under built. Official data tabled in Parliament in March 2025puts the sanctioned strength of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) at 1,177 career officers, with a total of 6,277 officers and local staff manning 218 missions and posts worldwide……”

Read full article at forpolindia.com