ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Antara Acharya was UGC-DSA Phase-III Research Fellow at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, where she researched on the WTO and Indian agriculture. She joined the Indian Administrative Services under the West Bengal cadre, and has contributed several research papers to journals and edited volumes.
Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya is Professor Emeritus at the Department of International Relations at Jadavpur University, and is widely recognized as a leading authority on international relations theory. He began his career as a diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. As a trainee diplomat, he took a one-year special course in international relations at the University of Oxford. After working in the British Foreign Office and the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, he served as Second Secretary and Head of the Chancery at the Deputy High Commission of India, Dhaka; Second Secretary at the High Commission in India, Karachi; and Under-Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. He then joined the faculty of the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, where he successively became Professor, Head of Department, Dean of Faculty, and Director of the School of International Relations and Strategic Studies. He was Senior Fellow at Columbia University, New York, for one year, and Professor of International Studies at the American University, Washington, DC, for one year. He has published numerous books and papers in India and abroad, and addressed numerous international seminars, symposia, and learned gatherings.
Jyotirmoy Banerjee, Professor of International Relations, Jadavpur University, teaches modern political theory, major powers and strategic studies. He received his PhD in international relations from Jadavpur University. A recipient of the Fulbright and Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships, as well as fellowships from the Rockefeller Institute, the Goethe Institute, and the Shimla Institute of Advanced Study, Professor Banerjee has worked and lectured in numerous regional, national and international conferences and forums, including those of the Universities of California, Berkeley; Pennsylvania; Hawaii, Manoa; Massachusetts, and Toenissteiner Kreis, Cologne; and the German Foreign Ministry. He presented papers at two World Conferences on Soviet/Slavic Studies in Washington, DC, (1985) and Honolulu (1993). His list of publications contains a large number of research articles and books published both in India and abroad, as well as three Web sites.
Partha Pratim Basu is Head, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. He received his PhD from the University of Calcutta. He was a fellow of the Fulbright American Studies Institute, Southern Illinois University (2001). He specializes in media and politics, development studies, politics of non-governmental organizations, religion and politics, and human rights. He has completed projects on state-NGO relations in Pakistan, media and minority rights, and Bhutanese communities in India from a human security perspective (with Sumita Sen), and is working on a UGC Major Research Project on Media and the WTO. He is presently also working on a collaborative project with the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne. He is the author of Press and Foreign Policy in India and co-editor of State, Nation and Democracy: Alternative Global Futures. He has published extensively in international and national journals like Asian Survey and India Quarterly, and has contributed to a large number of edited volumes.
Madhavi Bhasin earned her doctoral degree from the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, with a specialization in South Asian regional affairs. She writes regularly on issues relating to US foreign policy, South Asia, Middle East and conflict resolution.
Kingshuk Chatterjee is Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Calcutta. He was previously with the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, and has served as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.
Aparajita Gangopadhyay teaches international relations and Latin American studies at the Centre for Latin American and International Studies, Goa University. She received her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has contributed to scholarly journals and edited volumes on such issues as foreign policy aspects of the Indian diaspora, regionalism and indigenous movements in Latin America, India-Latin America relations, human security, and institutional history of area studies in India. Her current research focuses on regionalisms of the ‘South’, gender and international relations.
Abhijit Ghosh is Reader and Head, Department of Political Science, University of Burdwan, where he has been teaching for over two and a half decades. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Burdwan. Dr Ghosh is the co-editor of Indian Political Thought and Movement: New Interpretations and Emerging Issues, and has published research papers in a number of journals and edited volumes.
Nalini Kant Jha is Rajiv Gandhi Chair Professor in Contemporary Studies at the University of Allahabad. He was a professor of international politics at Pondicherry University, where he held the posts of Dean, School oflnternational Studies; Head, Department of Political Science; Director, Southern Asia Studies Programme; and Coordinator, Centre for Nehru Studies. Professor Jha has been a Fulbright Professor at the South Asian Studies Program of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC; Visiting Fellow at Department of International Relations at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (2005); Shastri Scholar at the University of Dalhousie, Halifax, Canada (1997); and Senior Fulbright Fellow at the South Asian Studies Centre of University of California, Berkeley, USA (1992-93). His major works include Domestic Imperatives in India’s Foreign Policy; South Asia in the 21st Century: India, Her Neighbours and Great Powers; Peace and Cooperative Security in South Asia and India’s Foreign Policy in a Changing World. A widely travelled scholar, Professor Jha has published more than 60 research papers in national and international journals.
Rajesh Kumar Mishra is Associate Fellow at Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He received his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and his areas of research include nuclear security and disarmament issues.
G. V. C. Naidu, is Professor in Southeast Asian studies in the Centre for South, Central and Southeast Asian and Southwest Pacific Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He received his doctorate from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and was Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. He specializes in Asia Pacific issues, including Southeast Asian security, Japanese foreign and security policies, Asian multilateralism, maritime security, political economy of East Asia, and India’s relations with East Asia. His visiting appointments and fellowships include Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore; Japan Foundation Visiting Professor at the Daito Bunka University, Japan; Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center, Honolulu; and Visiting Fellow at the Japan Institute oflnternational Affairs, Tokyo. His publications include Indian Navy and Southeast Asia, Changing Security Dynamic in East Asia (edited), and India-Japan: Partnership for Peace and Security in Asia (edited), five monographs on various issues related to India and Southeast Asia, Japan and East Asian security, and a large number of articles, essays, and research papers published in India and abroad.
A. K. Pasha is Professor at the Centre for West Asian and African Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he has served as Chairperson and Director, Gulf Studies. He has also been Director, Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture, Cairo. He has authored, edited and co-edited, and contributed essays on India, the Gulf, West Asia and North Africa to over 25 books published in India and abroad. His research articles have been published in several national and international journals. He holds MA degrees in Middle Eastern studies and political science from Mysore University; as well as an MPhil and PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He had been a research fellow in the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Strategic Studies (Bahrain); the academic board of the Gulf Research Centre, Dubai; Journal of Polity and Society (Kerala) and Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations (Istanbul). His research is focused on West Asia and North Africa. He is a frequent commentator and analyst on international affairs, especially on West Asian and North African issues, for radio and television in India and abroad.
Ashish K. Roy is Professor, Department of South and Southeast Asia, University of Calcutta. He has won many international fellowships, including the Junior Scientist Fellowship. He was a Senior Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania (1976-77). He has attended, chaired and participated in many national and international seminars and conferences. He is the author of Spring Thunder and After, Communism in Asia: A Study in Strategy and Tactics; and Praetorian Politics in Bangladesh. He specializes in political science and international relations, and his areas of interest include comparative politics, military sociology, communists and ethno-terrorist movements, narco-terrorism, international relations, and South and Southeast Asia. His current project is NEFA Revisted: A Colonial and Post-colonial Administrative History of India’s North-Eastern Sector with Special Reference to Its Geostrategic Importance in India’s Defence Policy.
Anita Sengupta is a fellow at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata. She has contributed articles on boundaries and state formation, the question of minorities and minority identity, gender, problems of transitional polities, and culture in the Central Asian region to several national and international research journals such as the Central Asian Survey, Journal of Central Asian Studies and Central Asia and the Caucasus. Dr Sengupta has participated in various national and international seminars. She is the author of Russia, China and Multilateralism in Central Asia, The Formation of the Uzbek Nation-State: A Study in Transition, and Frontiers into Borders: The Transformation of Identities in Central Asia. Her book The Geopolitics of Political Space will be published by Lexington Books in 2009.
V. S. Sheth is Adjunct Professor at the Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai. He received his PhD from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Dr Sheth has worked as a lecturer at the University of Bombay and worked at the University’s Area Studies Centre on Africa, established by the Union Grants Commission in 1971-72. He became a professor and director of the Centre in 2000. Dr Sheth has written and edited five books and several dozen articles in professional journals on Africa and Indian Ocean. He has travelled widely within and outside the country to participate in seminars and conferences and has also organized several seminars and conferences at the Centre. He has also initiated academic cooperation and exchange agreements with sister institutions in Africa and outside. He is a member of UGC Standing Advisory Committee of Area Studies Centres in Indian Universities. He has been a member of the University’s Academic Research and Academic Committee, besides chairing the Centre’s Board of Studies.
Swaran Singh is a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is currently President of the Association of Asia Scholars, New Delhi; General Secretary of the Indian Congress of Asian and Pacific Studies, New Delhi; and member of the Asian Scholarship Foundation’s South Asia Regional Review Committee. He has been a visiting scholar at Beijing University, Hong Kong University, University of Philippines, Xiamen University, Shanghai Institute of International Studies, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, University for Peace, and formerly of Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, and Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Professor Singh specializes in Asian security, defence and disarmament, and peace and conflict resolution. Some of his publications include China-South Asia: Issues, Equations, Policies, China-India Economic Cooperation: Building Mutual Confidence, China-Pakistan Strategic Cooperation: Indian Perspectives, Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Initiative and Regionalism in South Asian Diplomacy (co-authored).
Satyabrat Sinha is Assistant Professor at Sikkim University, and the assistant editor of China Report. He was previously a research officer at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi. His research areas include South Asian politics, security, foreign policy, peace, and conflict studies.