A young Pakistan Foreign Service Officer posted in Delhi when the Pakistani crackdown in Dhaka began on March 25, 1971, K M Shehabuddin renounced his allegiance to Pakistan on April 6 and became the first career diplomat to pledge loyalty to the unborn state of Bangladesh. After the formation of the Mujibnagar government, he served as the first head of Bangladesh's Delhi mission and played a leading role on the diplomatic front of the liberation war. There and Back Again is the tale of a mufassil headmaster's younger son, who took a break from his college teaching job to take the foreign service exam, and soon-and repeatedly-found himself in the midst of dramatic events including the civil war in Lebanon and Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. Shehabuddin's often gripping account is a must-read for all those interested in international relations, foreign policy, and the history of Bangladesh's diplomacy.
Contents
Part I
Chapter 1: The Early Days
Chapter 2: The Road to the Foreign Service
Part II
Chapter 3: Nineteen Seventy-One
Chapter 4: Opening the Diplomatic Front of the War
Chapter 5: The International Community Responds
Part III
Chapter 6: Discovering Europe
Chapter 7: Beirut
Chapter 8: At the Foreign Office
Chapter 9: At the London High Commission
Chapter 10: On Special Duty in Dhaka
Chapter 11: The Waning of Communism
Chapter 12: Oil, Opulence - and War
Chapter 13: A Return to Paris
Chapter 14: The Lone Superpower
Looking Back