< Back Gaurav Saini Fellow & Operations Lead Dr. Gaurav Saini is a Fellow & Operations Lead at the Council for Strategic and Defense Research. Gaurav finished his PhD from the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. His research interests include Indian foreign policy, strategic culture and conflict resolution. He manages ‘The Chao Track’ - India, ‘National Security Conversations with Happymon Jacob’ and leads product design and partnerships at CSDR.

< Back VAdm ANIL K CHAWLA Editor-Maritime Affairs VAdm Anil K Chawla is the former Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command and a Distinguished Fellow at CSDR. He joined the National Defence Academy in Jan 1978. Commissioned in the Indian Navy on 01 Jan 1982, he specialized in Navigation and Direction in 1988 and subsequently navigated two of the Navy’s frontline frigates. On promotion to the rank of Vice Admiral, he took over as the Director General of Naval Operations on 31 Dec 2014. He took over as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command, Kochi on 31 Jul 18. Vice Admiral Chawla was conferred the Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 Jan 13 and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 Jan 2015 for distinguished service. He was conferred with the honorary title of Aide-De-Camp to the President of India on 01 Dec 2019. He was awarded the Param Vishisht Medal for distinguished service of the highest order on 26 Jan 2020. akchawlanav@csdronline.com 123-456-7890

< Back Ms Gayathri Iyer Gayathri Iyer has formerly served as a Junior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, in its Strategic Studies Program, where she focused on research analysis and publications on maritime trade and connectivity, space engagements, energy security and infrastructure sustainability. She holds a Double MSc in Public Policy and Human Development, from the United Nations University (and Maastricht University), with a thesis on ‘The Extent of Impact of Greening Seaports on International Trade Competitiveness’. She served as an Expert Panelist at Deakin Law School, presenting research on ‘Sustainable and Secure maritime Infrastructure in Indo-Pacific Region’. She also co-conceptualized, managed and facilitated the ‘Ocean Dialogue’ of 2017, on the nautical commons, with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Publications East Meets East: An Assessment of the Proposed Chennai-Vladivostok Maritime Corridor: https://www.orfonline.org/research/east-meets-east-an-assessment-of-the-proposed-chennai-vladivostok-maritime-corridor/ Re-envisioning the future of Asian regionalism in the Post COVID19 Era: https://www.orfonline.org/research/re-envisioning-the-future-of-asian-regionalism-in-the-post-covid-19-era-66700// Sunk Costs: COVID-19 and the Maritime Industry: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/sunk-costs-covid19-and-the-maritime-industry-64985/

< Back Ms Aakriti Sethi Aakriti Sethi is a doctoral candidate at the US Studies Program, Centre for Canadian, US & Latin American Studies (CCUS&LAS), School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She completed her MPhil in US studies from the same and a Masters of Arts degree in Geopolitics and International Relations (MAGIR) from Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka. She has acquired internship experience at the North America centre of Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi and Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies (KIIPS), Bhubaneswar. Her areas of interest include US foreign policy, US-Japan relations, US-China relations, Indo-Pacific region, East Asian security, US domestic politics and India's foreign policy. Publications

Dr. Happymon Jacob is the Founder and Director of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research. < Back Editor-In-Chief: Dr. Happymon Jacob Dr Happymon Jacob is the founder and director of CSDR. He directs CSDR’s research and activities across divisions. He is an Associate Professor of Diplomacy and Disarmament at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU). Dr Jacob has held various academic and research positions and is an accomplished author, having written the books ‘Line on Fire: Ceasefire Violations and India-Pakistan Escalation Dynamics’ (OUP, 2019) and ‘Line of Control: Traveling with the Indian and Pakistani Armies’ (Penguin Viking, 2018).

< Back Dr Anil P Anil Kumar P is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at, and the Head of, the Department of Political Science, Panamapilli Memorial Govt. College. He holds an MPhil and PhD from the University of Kerala, where he also serves as a Research Guide in Political Science. He is also the Vice President of the Association of Political Scientists, Kerala and is the Editor of the University College Journal of Politics and Society. During the Kerala Assembly elections of 2011, he held the post of Supervisor in the CNN-IBN-The Week Election Survey conducted by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, and was the only Indian to be selected for the Study of United States Institute for Scholars Programme on US Foreign Policy Conducted by the US State Department. He has authored several book chapters on India’s maritime security policy, its relationship with Japan and the United States, and India’s concerns with China. Publications

< Back Dr Bhagya Senaratne Dr Bhagya Senaratne is a Postdoctoral Fellow of Global Asia at the Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai. Previously, she was a Senior Lecturer (U.S. Associate Professor) in the Department of Strategic Studies, at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka. Her research at the Center for Global Asia focuses on the BRI in South Asia. Her research and teaching intersects Foreign Policy Analysis, Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, Strategic Communications and Maritime Security. Dr Senaratne has served in several editorial boards such as the Journal of Defence & Policy Analysis and the Defence and Security Journal published of which she was the Editor-in-Chief in 2021. She co-edited Pakistan-Sri Lanka Relations: A Story of Friendship in 2017 and Sri Lanka’s Post-Independence Defence Policy: Past, Present and Future Projections in 2023. She has podcasts with the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), USA and the Indo-Pacific Circle (IPC), New Delhi and writes to the Stimson Center’s South Asian Voices on Sri Lanka’s foreign policy. Publications Senaratne, B. (2024, May 10). Sri Lankan elections and an Indian Ocean tug-of-war. Daily FT. https://www.ft.lk/columns/Sri-Lankan-elections-and-an-Indian-Ocean-tug-of-war/4-761616 Senaratne, B. (2023). Sri Lanka’s Tightrope of Non-alignment, Economic Compulsions, and Diplomacy. In Aditya Gowdara Shivamurthy (Ed.), US-China Competition: Perspectives from the Neighbourhood. ORF Special Report No. 218, December 2023, Observer Research Foundation. Senaratne, B. (2023). “U.S. relations with Sri Lanka: A Case of Impulsiveness, Missed Opportunities and Strategic Competition”. In O. Turner, W. Aslam, & N. Nymalm (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of US policy in the Indo-Pacific (pp. 300-314). London: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003018322-25

< Back Dr Benjamin Yew Hoong Loh Benjamin Yew Hoong Loh is a senior lecturer at the School of Media and Communication, Taylor’s University. He is a media scholar who employs digital ethnography in studying emergent cultures and the digital public sphere. Having received his doctorate in communications and new media from the National University of Singapore, he focuses on the confluence between technology and society, with a particular focus on minority and marginalised communities. He co-edited a book on the recent Sabah state elections, “Sabah from the Ground: The 2020 Elections and the Politics of Survival” (ISEAS/SIRD 2021). His next book, a co-edited volume with James Chin entitled, “New Media in the Margins: Lived Realities and Experiences from the Malaysian Peripheries” (Palgrave 2023) will be published in early 2023. Publications

< Back Mr Abhijeet Kumar Abhijeet is a PhD researcher at the Queen Mary University of London, and a recipient of the Herchel Smith Fellowship, researching the issues related to the protection of Indigenous Cultural Heritages through intellectual property regime. He has done his B.A., LL.B. degree, with a Gold Medal and dual honours in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights, from NLU Odisha (India), and his LLM degree, as the batch-topper, from NLU Jodhpur (India), with specialisation in Intellectual Property Rights. He has authored several research papers, book chapters and reviews, along with his first monograph titled ‘A Complete Guide to Valuation of IP Assets (With Discussions on Managing, Auditing and Taxing IPs)’, published by Thomson Reuters. He has professional experience of practising as an Advocate before Courts in India and is presently employed as an In-house Counsel for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, a ‘Maharatna’ Undertaking of Govt. of India. Publications

< Back Dr Ying Hooi Khoo Khoo Ying Hooi is the Head of, and Senior Lecturer at, the Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya. She completed her PhD in Politics and Government examining social movements and democratization with a focus on Malaysia's Bersih movement, from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her research interests include civil society, social movements, human rights and democratization with a regional focus on Southeast Asia and ASEAN, especially Malaysia and Timor-Leste. Currently, a columnist in a local Chinese newspaper, Sin Chew Jit Poh, she is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of International Relations (MJIR), and sits on the Board of Editors for the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights and the Indonesian Law Review. Her most recent book is titled, "The Bersih Movement and Democratization in Malaysia", and published by ISEAS and Lexington Books. Publications Have Human Rights Failed? https://www.sinchew.com.my/?p=3108161 COVID-19 in Southeast Asia: much more than a health crisis https://theconversation.com/covid-19-in-southeast-asia-much-more-than-a-health-crisis-159451 What Will It Take to Admit Timor-Leste Into ASEAN? https://thediplomat.com/2019/08/what-will-it-take-to-admit-timor-leste-into-asean/

< Back Dr Anand V Dr Anand V is currently working as an Assistant Professor (Senior Scale) at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Academy of Higher Education where he teaches subjects related to the theoretical and technological dimensions of geopolitics, among others, at the Masters level. He is also the Coordinator of the China Study Centre and the North East Studies Centre at the Department. He was briefly associated with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru and the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi, where he conducted research on China’s space programme. He has published a monograph, several book chapters, research articles in peer reviewed journals as well as commentaries in various forums. He has also presented papers at numerous national and international conferences within and outside India. He has more than a decade of learning, teaching and research experience in the fields of geopolitics, international relations, China studies and strategic studies. Prior to that, he was as an engineer in the Defence production industry in the public sector. Publications Pervasive Geopolitics, Elusive Science: The Quest for the Origins of SARS CoV-2 https://www.idsa.in/cbwmagazine/pervasive-geopolitics-elusive-science Revisiting the Discourse on Strategic Culture: An Assessment of the Conceptual Debates https://www.idsa.in/strategicanalysis/44_3/revisiting-the-discourse-on-strategic-culture China’s silk road ambitions in outer space https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/chinas-silk-road-ambitions-outer-space/

< Back Ms Parul Bakshi Parul Bakshi holds a PhD from the Japanese Division of the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She has also been a Special Research Student at the Graduate School of Public Policy at The University of Tokyo as a Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellow 2021-22. Her research is titled “Japan’s Post-Fukushima Energy Transition Towards Renewable Energy: Lessons from German Energiewende”. She has previously completed her MPhil, top of her class, from the aforementioned institute on the subject titled “Japan’s Path towards Renewable Energy: Scope for Japan-India Cooperation (2001-16)”. Parul has widely published in academic journals such as the Australian Journal of International Affairs, The Pacific Review, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, and the Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, among others. She is also a recipient of the Mitsubishi Cooperation International Scholarship in recognition of excellence in the Japanese language. Publications