Jagat S. Mehta was Foreign Secretary, Government of India, during 1976-79 appointed at a comparative young age of 53. After retirement, his primary interest has been in voluntarism for social and economic development. However, he has woven these with spells in academia. He was an Associate at Harvard Centre for International Affairs in 1980, Fellow at Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington in 1981 and appointed Tom Slick Distinguished Professor of World Peace in Austin (Texas) in 1983. His predecessor in this chair included Nobel Laureates Gunnar and Alva Myrdal. He is the author of The March of Folly in Afghanistan (1978-2001), Manohar, 2002; and the editor of Third World Militarization: A Challenge to Third World Diplomacy, LBJ School of Public Affairs, 1985.
