The Story of an Unprecedented Diplomatic Win: INDIA Vs UK is an account of the 2017 United Nations election for a seat on the Bench of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The election witnessed the Indian nominee, Dalveer Bhandari, prevail over Christopher Greenwood of the United Kingdom. That was a momentous victory for India for the simple reason that never before had a non-P5 candidate succeeded against a P5 nominee in an ICJ election. P 5 club members are veto-wielding United Kingdom, United States, Russia, France and China.

I thought that the world is changing, the United Nations is changing and India’s approach to world affairs is also changing. That change can be told through abstract prose or it can be reflected through concepts or perhaps it can best be reflected by using the metaphor of an election of a judge to a court.

In India, we are not used to hearing about elections to court. And all of us revere the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a world court, the paragon of justice. Yet the systems that have been established in the United Nations ensure that these are all political choices. Justice is in the background, and the choice of who gets elected is primarily political.

That in a nutshell is a metaphor for all international institutions whether it is the World Health Organisation (WHO) which focuses primarily on health, but it is a political organisation. Or take the example of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna where I worked. It is a scientific organisation that focuses on nuclear energy but it is a political organisation.

Similarly, the International Court of Justice too is a political organisation. That is what international politics is all about or diplomacy is all about. I just wanted to focus on this aspect.