About the Speaker

Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza

Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza is a teacher in Defence and Strategic Studies; Member of Research & Advisory Committee, Naval War College, Goa; Board Director at Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo; Research Fellow at WeltTrends-Institut für internationale Politik, Potsdam, Germany; Editorial board member of Small Wars & Insurgencies (Routledge: UK);  Associate editor for the Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs (Sage); Expert and Contributor to the Middle East-Asia Project at the Middle East Institute, Washington DC; Senior analyst for the South Asia desk with the Wikistrat Analytic Community and Adviser for Independent Conflict Research and Analysis in London.  She has previously been Visiting Research Associate at the School of Business & Governance, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia (2017); Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies , National University of Singapore ( 2010-14); Associate Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi ( 2006-10); Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Research associate at South Asia Studies, The Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC( 2005-06).

Dr D’Souza’s research interests and expertise include: Countering terrorism, insurgencies and violent extremism; Asymmetric and emerging security threats; Armed conflicts, illicit networks and organized crime ; Women, peace and conflict; Prospects for long term stabilization of Afghanistan; State and Peace building in fragile states; Security Sector Reform; Sub-national governance and downward accountability in Afghanistan; International interventions, Aid delivery and Post conflict stabilization; Non-traditional security threats in Asia; Organizational restructuring, public-private partnerships, Strategic Communications; Identity Politics in Asia; Emerging powers and Great power politics; India’s foreign, maritime and security policy; Prospects for Regional Cooperation in South and South East Asia.

As Adviser, Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2015-16); International Election Observer for the audit and recount of Afghanistan’s Presidential Runoff elections,( 2014); Senior Transition Consultant, United Nations Mine Action Service (2013), Kabul and External Reviewer for the country programme of Action Aid International, Afghanistan (2011), she has worked with governmental and non-governmental sectors for more than a decade and conducted field based studies in various provinces of Afghanistan.  She has also conducted field research in Pakistan, China, Africa, Australia, Canada, United States, Jammu and Kashmir and India’s North East.

Among her most recent published work are edited books titled “Countering insurgencies and violent extremism in South and South East Asia” (Cass Military Studies, Routledge: UK), Afghanistan in Transition: Beyond 2014?, co-edited books, Perspectives on South Asian Security and Saving Afghanistan. She has guest edited a special issue on “Countering insurgencies and violent extremism in South Asia” in Small Wars & Insurgencies (UK: Routledge), February 2017. She has contributed chapters to edited books, journal articles, encyclopedias, yearbooks and regional surveys and op-eds in the media. She has published in international peer reviewed journals including Small Wars & Insurgencies (UK: Routledge), Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs (Sage), The Journal of South Asian Development (Sage), South Asian Survey (Sage), Contemporary South Asia (London: Routledge),  Strategic Analysis (Routledge), Journal of Defence Studies, Journal of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, Combating Terrorism Exchange (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA), Small Wars Journal, (Small Wars Foundation, Bethesda, USA),  Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, (Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University: Washington DC), The Journal of International Security Affairs, No. 20, (Washington DC), Welt Trends: Journal for International Politics and Comparative Studies(Germany: University of Potsdam),  and others. Her work on Afghanistan and India have been published in The Europa Regional Surveys of the World, Europa World (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge) and Encyclopedia Britannica.

Dr D’Souza has been interviewed by various media outlets and her opinion pieces have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Strait Times (Singapore), The Hindu (India), Indian Express, The Business Times (Singapore), Business Standard (India), Fair Observer; Asian Age; Deccan Chronicle; Forbes (IBN Live), The New Statesman (UK), NATO Watch, Fergana (Russia), Huffington Post, Rediff, The Star (Malaysia), The Islamic Republic News Agency (Iran), Bloomberg, Eurasia Review, Open Democracy (London), World Affairs Journal (Washington, D.C),  Strategic Perspectives (RCSS, Colombo), Control Risks/South Asia (London), Afghan Zariza (Kabul), Anadolu Agency (Ankara), South Asia Journal, Al-Arabiya (Dubai), Daily News & Analysis ( Mumbai), The Pioneer (Delhi).

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