Former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott's book Engaging India: Democracy, Diplomacy and the Bomb, says the blurb, is a "racy read, the James Hadley Chase of diplomacy". It is certainly a welcome departure from the dreariness and self-importance of the average political memoir.

Engaging India is primarily a serious examination of the role political bickering among and within countries has played in allowing nuclear proliferation to continue, as well as an examination of the United States' relationship with South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan.

Many things have changed since Mr. Talbott, an erstwhile Time correspondent and member of the Clinton Administration, was in office - even more so since his book was published in 2004. But there is something to be said about the timing of The Brookings Institution, which came out with the paperback version just as President Bush returned from South Asia bearing news of his controversial nuclear deal with India, which is more remarkable for the general gloom it has spread all around than anything else.

Mr. Talbott's tenure was far different. Until India unexpectedly conducted nuclear tests in 1998, his Administration was looking elsewhere on the global map. Mr. Talbott had no experience with India or Indians and he wasn't looking for the close relationship he eventually established with both, when he walked into his office one May morning and was informed of the latest entrant to the nuclear club via CNN.

As the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once remarked, actions in one part of the world cannot fail to affect events in another part of the globe. Thus, Mr. Talbott entered into a dialogue with the Indian External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh and tried his best to thwart Indian nuclear ambitions. In this book, an account of his talks, he traces the evolution of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and their impact on South Asia, the United States and the Cold War alongside the fascinating character sketches of somewhat sinister politicians who hold the fate of millions in their palm. Simultaneously he is able to concisely explain the historical compulsions of each state and politician.