In his first diplomatic posting, he was Counsellor to Guyana's Embassy to the United States from 1966 to 1969, and he subsequently became Guyana's charge d'affaires in Venezuela in 1970. He was briefly his country's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 1972, then served as Ambassador to Venezuela from 1972 to 1978. After this posting, he was Permanent Representative to the European Economic Community and Ambassador to Belgium; although living in Brussels, he was also Ambassador to Austria, Norway, and Sweden at this time. Subsequently, having returned to Guyana, Insanally was Head of the Political Division covering the Western Hemisphere, also serving as Ambassador to Colombia and as High Commissioner to a number of Caribbean nations. He became the Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations on 18 February 1987. At the UN, he was Vice-President of the United Nations Council for Namibia prior to Namibian independence in 1990, and in April 1990 he was Vice-President/Rapporteur of the Special Session of the General Assembly on International Economic Cooperation. He was the President of the Forty-Eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which was held from 1993 to 1994. He is the longest serving current delegate to the United Nations. During his Presidency, he convened a World Hearing on Development attended by a large number of eminent persons, including experts, academics and practitioners of development in June 1994. He also served as Chairman of the Open Ended Working Group on the question of Equitable Representation on and increase of the Membership of the Security Council. Insanally was Chancellor of the University of Guyana from 1994 to 2001. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs in May 2001. After seven years in that post, the government announced on 28 March 2008 that Insanally had decided to resign as Foreign Minister for "health and other personal reasons", although he would "continue to discharge certain other responsibilities in his engagement with Government". His replacement, Carolyn Rodrigues, was sworn in on 10 April. He is married with one daughter.
Publications
Rudy Insanally, Multilateral Diplomacy for Small States: "The art of letting others have your way"
Rudy Insanally, Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Dispatch From A Small State Diplomat
Rudy Insanally, The Guyanese Culture: Fusion or Diffusion.
S.R Insanally, The Mystery of God: The Principles of God Diplomacy.
