• The fourth edition of the Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship annual conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, titled ‘World Reorder’, was recently held in New Delhi.
• The Dialogue, which has grown steadily in scope and scale since the first edition in 2015, will bring together over 600 delegates from 93 countries, including influential political leaders, strategic thinkers, policy practitioners, technology innovators, business representatives and academics on a common platform where they will offer their vision and propose solutions that will serve us all in the decades ahead.

About Raisina Dialogue:

• It was conceived just three years ago, in early 2016, the Raisina Dialogue is India’s premier foreign policy conference. And within this short span, it has emerged as a much-awaited event in the international foreign policy calendar.
• Organized along the lines of the Shangri-La Dialogue held in Singapore, and co-hosted by the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the Observer Research Foundation, it takes its name from the Raisina Hills, where India’s seat of power resides.
• The Dialogue, since its inception, has attracted academics, scholars, researchers, students, journalists and even politicians who are either interested—or are working—in the field of international relations, geopolitics, security, nuclear issues and Indian foreign policy. That is evident with the fact that even the first edition of the dialogue involved about 120 international participants from 40 countries, while the second edition attracted 250 foreign participants from 65 countries.

Themes and strategies

• The first edition of the Dialogue took place in March 2016. The overarching theme of that inaugural edition was 'Asia: Regional and Global Connectivity’. The next year’s theme was “The New Normal: Multilateralism with Multi-Polarity”. At each Dialogue, these themes provide a contextual backdrop to the sessions, presentations and discussions.
• The rationale being that India is using every opportunity available to use all kinds of platforms to engage with other countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally. For instance, this year the government of India has made the unprecedented move of inviting ten heads of states from Asean countries as chief guests for its Republic Day ceremony.

Why does the Dialogue matter?

• An event of such scale sets the tone for the rest of the year. The Dialogue provides a platform for the government to state its position on various questions and issues of international relations. The event gives many experts, and other countries, a glimpse into the Indian government’s near-term priorities in international relations. Such insight is exceedingly, and this is no doubt why the Raisina Dialogue has proved to be a success.
• The Dialogue also provides a golden chance for young scholars and researchers to interact with a galaxy of stars from the international relations universe. Also, it gives a platform for researchers to network and perhaps even collaborate. And finally, the event creates an ecosystem for the growth and development of think tanks and other policy groups. The Dialogue has arguably played an essential role in the blossoming policy sector in Delhi.