Areas of Interest:

India and International Relations

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Ambassador Rajendra Abhyankar retired from the O'Neill School in 2019.

At the time of his 2005 retirement, Ambassador Rajendra Abhyankar was India’s Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, and Luxembourg. His professional career includes 37 years of Indian diplomacy, serving as Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Syria, and Turkey, High Commissioner to Cyprus, and Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. He has also been India’s Consul General in San Francisco.

He worked in the areas of academics, corporate philanthropy, consulting, and international Track II dialogues. He was director of the Centre for West Asian (Middle East) Studies and professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi; director and adviser for The Asia Foundation’s program in India; and president of the Hinduja Foundation in Mumbai.

Ambassador Abhyankar’s affiliation with Indiana University began in 2011 as a diplomat-in-residence at the Center for American and Global Security. His research interests include international relations and diplomacy, its practice and multiple dimensions. He is the author of two books and three monographs including Stuff Happens: An Anecdotal Insight into Indian Diplomacy. He has also co-authored three books on Indian foreign policy of Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Congo. He has researched for books on Indian diplomacy and on Syria.

Ambassador Abhyankar has held positions on a number of philanthropic and charitable foundations. He was chair of the Kunzru Centre for Defense Studies and Research, Pune, India. While at O'Neill he initiated collaboration between educational institutions in India and with other countries.

Ambassador Abhyankar has been a frequent speaker on international affairs at universities and think-tanks around the world and a contributor to newspapers and journals in international issues. He speaks French, Italian, Greek, Turkish, and Arabic in addition to four Indian languages.