Rakesh Sood joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976, first serving in Brussels, Dakar, Geneva, and Islamabad in different capacities, and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, D.C. At the Ministry, he set up the Disarmament and International Security Affairs Division in the Foreign Ministry and led it for nine years. During this period, Ambassador Sood was in charge for multilateral disarmament negotiations, bilateral dialogues with Pakistan, strategic dialogues with other countries including US, UK, France and Israel (especially after the nuclear tests in 1998), non-proliferation related export controls and dealt with India’s role in the ASEAN Regional Forum, as part of the ‘look East’ policy. 
He has served as India’s first Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and later as Ambassador to Afghanistan, Nepal and France. After retiring in 2013, Ambassador Sood was appointed Special Envoy of the Prime Minister for Disarmament and Non-proliferation, a position he held until May 2014. Since leaving government, Ambassador Sood has been writing and speaking on foreign policy, regional and global security related issues at home and abroad. He is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Council for Strategic and Defence Reseach, a Delhi based think-tank. A selection of his writings and interviews may be seen at
https://rakeshsood.in/