Walter J. Lindner, born in Munich in 1956, is a diplomat, musician, lawyer and author. He began his diplomatic career in Bonn, Ankara and Managua in 1988, after studying law and taking a four-year trip around the world. He was then a counsellor at the German representation to the United Nations in New York, and later, press spokesman for Joschka Fischer and state secretary under Sigmar Gabriel. In Berlin, he headed, among other things, the crisis response centre, and was the director for African affairs as well as a special envoy of the German chancellor during the fight against the Ebola epidemic. He was the German ambassador in Kenya, Somalia, Venezuela and South Africa, before taking over as head of the embassy in India in 2019. He now works as an author and speaker, and devotes himself with passion to his second life as a pianist, composer and music producer. In March 2024, his book with co-author Heike Wolter, Der Alte Westen und der Neue Suden, was published to much acclaim.
<p style="padding: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(15, 17, 17); font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The geopolitical coordinate system has long known only two axes: the East and the West. Increasingly, a new one is gaining prominence: the Global South, of which India is a crucial part. According to former German ambassador, Walter J. Lindner, India is everything that the West is not –young, dynamic and innovative. The world’s most populous country is being courted like no other as a gigantic sales market, a reservoir of skilled workers and an IT hub.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: -4px 0px 0px; color: rgb(15, 17, 17); font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Lindner knows India like few others. In his incisive new book, he discusses India from a Western perspective in a way that builds bridges – even as he does not shy away from critical observations. For instance, India’s democracy might not always conform to Western ideals, being shaped and challenged by the rise of Hindu nationalism, its caste system, pervasive poverty and violence against women. With India’s example, Lindner shows exactly what the world could learn from the countries of the Global South to better tackle tomorrow’s challenges.</p>
