Professor Nayan Chanda reviews newest book by Professor Srinath Raghavan on Indira Gandhi

A recent review by Professor Nayan Chanda of Professor Srinath Raghavanā€™s book has been featured inĢżGlobal Asia, a leading journal on international affairs. The review offers thoughtful insights into the bookā€™s key arguments and discusses its contributions to broader understandings about the political history of India in the time of Indira Gandhi.

Please read the full review .

The book can be found .

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Bann Seng Tan is appointed as Associate Editor for the Asia Europe Journal (SpringerNature)

Asia Europe Journal (Springer Nature) is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes research papers of national and regional relevance for Asia and Europe, with a particular focus on issues of bi-regional interest.

Bann Seng Tan has been formally reappointed as Associate Editor of Asia Europe Journal for a further two-year term. The appointment was confirmed by the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Shen Wei, and takes effect immediately.

Published by Springer Nature, the Asia Europe Journal provides a forum for scholarship on common policy challenges, interregional relations, and political, economic, and social developments across Asia and Europe. As Associate Editor, Bann Seng Tan contributes to the journalā€™s editorial oversight, including the assessment and management of manuscript submissions and the peer review process.

The reappointment reflects continued involvement in the journalā€™s editorial leadership and its international academic community.

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Launch of the Making Identity Count Project

The Making Identity Count (MIC) project is a constructivist, intersubjective database of national identities of mostly major powers (Brazil, China, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, USSR/Russia, USA, and UK) at a gap of every ten years (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020).

The project was initiated in 2015 to address a theoretical and methodological issue at the heart of constructivist research in International Relations ā€” while qualitative/interpretivist approaches were great at recovering/producing the richness of identity discourses, they could not preserve reliability across different spatio-temporal contexts, thus limiting their applicability. Conversely, positivist/quantitative approaches to identity relied on reductive, a priori generalisations that sacrificed validity at the altar of reliability. Thus, the project had a simple aim in mind: to build a method that recovers identity in a manner that preserves the semantic richness of interpretivist techniques along with the reliability of positivist research.

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Bann Seng Tan speaks on hedging at a high-level roundtable on ASEANā€“EU relations at Corvinus University of Budapest

The high-level roundtable discussion The ASEAN and the EU in a Changing World Order was organised by the Department of International Relations at Corvinus University of Budapest and brought together ambassadors, consular officials, and academic experts to discuss shifting regional and global dynamics.

On 24 November 2025, Bann Seng Tan participated as an invited speaker in the high-level The ASEAN and the EU in a Changing World Order at Corvinus University of Budapest. He spoke on hedging in foreign policy, focusing on the concept itself and its misapplications, with particular attention to how Southeast Asian states manage strategic uncertainty in their relations with the United States and China. The featured ambassadors and consular officials from several ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, as well as representatives from India, alongside faculty and students.

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Lecture by Ambassador Shyam Saran at 51²č¹Ż

During his presentation, at the invitation of the Department of International Relations, Ambassador Saran said, ā€œGeopolitics is now everybody's business.ā€ He added, ā€œIt is no longer something which remains in smoke-filled chanceries, where there is a group of diplomats deciding what foreign policy should be.ā€

Ambassador Saran underlined the challenges India faces as a consequence of the shifting American focus toward hemispheric control. America is now looking more to its own hemisphere- towards Greenland, the Caribbean, and South America- than elsewhere. ā€œIndia has been the beneficiary of a U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy for the last 25 years. That has now changed,ā€ Ambassador Saran observed. ā€œThis transition will be much more difficult and anarchic.ā€ He cautioned, ā€œDonā€™t do anything from your side to provoke, but at the same time be absolutely ready that this is going to get worse.ā€

Talking about Indiaā€™s task ahead, he noted that India ā€œdiversifying by reaching out to the Chinese, refurbishing the relationship with the Russians, and reaching out to the Europeans is the right response.ā€

Ambassador Saran, who has dealt with China over decades, pointed out that ā€œIndia-China relations are essentially an adversarial relationship between rivals. But that does not exclude the possibility of us working together in certain areas where we have converging interests.ā€

However, while doing all this, he emphasised, ā€œYou must get your own periphery (South Asia) right.ā€ India needs to shore up its relations with its immediate neighbours as the top priority.

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Call for Papers – Workshop on Non-National Identities and IR

The Department of International Relations, 51²č¹Ż, invites submissions for the workshop ā€˜Beyond the National: Cartographies of Identity, Insecurity, and Epistemic Marginalisationā€™, taking place on 27-28 February 2026, at 51²č¹Ż in Sonipat (near New Delhi), India. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions from post-docs and early-career researchers.

Description:

It is easy to see the world as a simple sum of cartographic blocks on the map, namely, nation-states. However, this supposed simplicity hides behind it a melee of people, communities, and entities that strain against these neat walls of the nation-state and the international ā€˜orderā€™ they constitute. Within this order, individuals and communities are frequently produced as ā€˜non-nationalā€™ā€“not through choice but through structural exclusions and failures of recognition. These ā€˜non-nationalā€™ identities arenā€™t merely symbolic anomalies; rather, they are materially and affectively intermeshed within pervasive forms of insecurity and vulnerability. Their insecurity is compounded by their epistemic invisibility, as dominant statist, masculinist, racial, ethnic, and territorial assumptions are deficient in registering their lives as meaningful, thus leading to these ā€˜non-nationalā€™ subjects remaining under-theorised, misread or dismissed as aberrations rather than constitutive features of the international. Yet they have their own forms of agency and power that remain severely under-recognised. This workshop seeks to provide a space for critical engagement with research agendas that interrogate the intersections of transversal, ā€˜non-nationalā€™ identities, concomitant insecurities and epistemic marginalisation in International Relations. In response to mainstream and newer approaches to IR, that continue to privilege neatly delineated classification of national boundaries, identities, stable security frameworks and epistemic categories, the workshop encourages scholars to bring forth conceptual, empirical and methodological innovations rooted in the lived experiences arising from contingent, in-between spaces that contribute to substantially enriching the theoretical, normative and methodological landscape in international relations. The workshop interrogates the neatness of categories and invites participants to think through what is foreclosed when categories are treated as stable rather than as situated, fluid, leaky or mutually constituted.

Suggested themes for contributions include:

• How do non-national, in-between or liminal identities challenge prevailing conceptions of sovereignty, security, statehood, race, and self-determination in International Relations?
• What is the relationship between epistemic marginalisation and material violence?
• How are tidy analytical distinctions produced, and how do they remain unchallenged over time in IR scholarship and epistemic traditions?
• How might we think with categories not as containers but as processes or provocations?
• How does epistemic marginalisation of certain identities reflect asymmetries in global knowledge production?
• What can International Relations learn from interdisciplinary interactions with postcolonial/decolonial theory, feminist and queer studies, and diaspora studies to better account for identities that defy simplistic categorisation?
• What methodological innovations can effectively foreground these identities and their insecurities into IR scholarship?
• How do critical approaches such as postcolonial/decolonial theory, feminist and queer studies, and diaspora studies themselves produce and perpetuate the use of unsustainable categories?
• How can interdisciplinary research that combines IR with history, cultural studies, migration Research, literary and media studies, anthropology, sociology, and ethnic studies lead to greater inclusion and underscore the need to reconsider core questions of IR and reformulate the meaning and significance of core concepts?
• What are the implications of rethinking insecurity from the perspective of marginalised, ā€œnon-nationalā€ identities?

Submissions:

Please submit your abstract (maximum 300 words) via the following by 11 October,2025. We expect to send out decisions by early November.

Some funding is available for travel, accommodation, and meals. Decisions on the allocation of funding will be made on the basis of availability and participantsā€™ funding statements.

We look forward to your proposals,

Quintijn Kat, Ananya Sharma, and Amit Julka, Department of International Relations.

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Varun Sahni joins the Department of International Relations

Professor Varun Sahni was till recently Professor in International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, from where he took early retirement after 30 years of service. An Inlaks Scholar, he completed his doctoral thesis on the political role of the Argentine Navy at the University of Oxford (1991). His teaching and research span a wide range of areas including International Relations theory, nuclear deterrence, regional security, emerging balances in the Indo-Pacific, evolving security concepts, emerging powers, Latin American issues, foreign policy, maritime geopolitics, and river waters.

Over his career, Professor Sahni has authored 92 research articles on these themes and has held visiting professorships at universities in Mexico City, Washington, DC, and Canberra. He has served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu (2008ā€“12) and Goa University (2016ā€“21). For his ā€œoutstanding contribution to research and teachingā€, he was awarded theĢżV.K.R.V. Rao Prize in Social Sciences (2006)Ģżby the Indian Council of Social Science Research. He has also served as a Jury Member of theĢżJawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding.

For inquiries, he can be reached at at varun.sahni@ashoka.edu.in .

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Bann Seng Tan gave a book talk at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

Bann Seng Tan presented his book,International Aid and Democracy Promotion: Liberalization at the Margins, at the 24th Global Platform Governance Forum. The event brought together scholars and practitioners to discuss governance challenges in the era of digital platforms and global transition. A dedicated banner was produced for the session, and the talk highlighted the international dimensions of democracy assistance and the politics of aid.

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Natallia Khaniejo joins the Department of International Relations

Dr. Natallia Khaniejoā€™s research lies at the intersection of critical theory, political geography, and affect. In her doctoral dissertation, she examined the continuities between colonial and postcolonial state-making in conflict regions, with particular focus on modalities of cartographic arrest and epistemic violence. Her research also engages with digital networks and cyberspace, with an emphasis on discursive violence, misinformation/disinformation, data privacy, and other digital harms.

Dr. Khaniejo holds a PhD from Nanyang Technological University. Her recent publications include:

• 'A composite monotheism? Pakistani state identity and support to the Khalistan movement, post 1984', Sikh Formations, 20(3)...etcetera.
• 'Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War on National Cyber Planning: A Survey of Ten Countries', [Journal title, if known], (20240... etcetera.

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Kanti Bajpai joins the Department of International Relations

Prof. Kanti Bajpai is a distinguished scholar of international relations with extensive teaching and research experience. He previously taught at the National University of Singapore, Oxford University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the Maharajah Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has also held visiting appointments at institutions such as the Brookings Institution (Washington DC), the Australian Defence Force Academy (Canberra), and the Institute for Defence and Strategic Analyses (New Delhi).

Prof. Bajpai is the author of India Versus China: Why They are Not Friends (2021), The Roots of Terrorism (2002), and Brasstacks and Beyond: Perception and Management of Crisis (1995). His recent edited volumes include How Realist is Indiaā€™s Security Policy? (2023) and the co-edited Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2021), with a second edition forthcoming. He is currently writing a book on Indiaā€™s national security.

Prof. Bajpai received the K. Subrahmanyam Award for Excellence in Research in Strategic and Security Studies (2012) and the Qimpro Platinum Standard in Education (2017). In 2010, he was Distinguished Fellow at IDSA. He earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1990. In July 2025, he became Emeritus Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

For inquiries, he can be reached at kanti.bajpai@ashoka.edu.

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Bann Seng Tan joins the Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, as a visiting research fellow in Fall 2025

During his sabbatical year, Bann Seng Tan will be at , Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary, as a CIAS . The fellowship runs from September 2025 to January 2026. He will research the impact of democratization on war and work on the conversion of his dissertation into a book manuscript. 

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Dipin Kaur receives US-India Security Studies Fellowship at Stanford

Dipin Kaur is a recipient of theĢżĢżatĢżtheĢżĢżat Stanford University. Through this fellowship, she will spend January to June 2026 as a visiting research fellow at the center in Palo Alto, California.Ģż

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Hegemonic Failures: Mass-Elite Resonance and Narratives of Indian Nationhood, 1947ā€“50

By comparing competing conceptions of Indian nationhood from 1947-50, this develops a theoretical framework of ideational resonance that distinguishes between hegemonic and dominant ideas at the mass level. Based on a Gramscian framework of hegemony and mass common sense, the article posits that some ideas may appear to be dominant as opposed to being truly hegemonic in the Gramscian sense. Secondly, what determines whether an idea becomes truly hegemonic is its resonance with mass common sense; the closer the sociopolitical link between the elite and the masses, the more likely it is to form cultural hegemony. Our framework yields the conclusion that these initial years of Indian independence were marked by a lack of hegemony, despite the seemingly unassailable position of the ruling Congress party. Conversely, we argue that during the same time period, Hindu nationalism's social influence may have been underestimated because of its political marginalization by Congress-led state apparatuses.

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Bann Seng Tan speaks about the Liberal International Order (LIO) at a West Point conference

Bann Seng Tan spoke in a panel on Deterrence where he presented strategies to defend the Liberal International Order in Asia. The held at the United States Military Academy, West Point will result in a special report for the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (OCJCS), which will also be distributed to US and allied interagency/interministerial partners.

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Arun Sukumar joins the Department of International Relations

Dr. Arun Sukumar specialises in international security, technology policy, and law, with a distinguished academic and research career. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at Leiden University and a researcher with the Hague Program on International Cybersecurity. He holds a PhD and MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a BA LLB from NALSAR University of Law, India.

Dr. Sukumar is the author of Midnightā€™s Machines: A Political History of Technology in India (Penguin Random House, 2019), which won the 2019 Ramnath Goenka Award and was listed among Bloombergā€™s Best Books of 2020. His research has appeared in leading journals and books, including the Oxford Handbook on Cyber Security.

For inquiries, he can be reached at arun.sukumar@ashoka.edu.

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Ananya Sharma contributes to forum on ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Using Generative AI for Research’ in The International Spectator.

Ananya Sharma, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations, recently contributed to a forum publication in The International Spectator on 'Challenges and Opportunities of Using Generative AI for Research.' Other contributors include Leo Goretti, Anselm KĆ¼sters, and Stella Morgana.

The rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools poses a number of urgent questions to all those involved in knowledge production processes. In order to discuss its potential benefits as well as the associated risks, the forum brings together the perspectives of four editors and researchers, building on two events organised by The International Spectator in collaboration with the International Studies Association (ISA) in 2024. Leo Goretti looks at the impact of generative AI on scholarly journals, discussing the policies of major publishers and interrogating the productivity-enhancing potential of AI tools for research and editorial work. Anselm KĆ¼sters focuses on how generative AI could be used in a responsible way by researchers, and what skills students and scholars will have to acquire to this end. Stella Morgana unpacks the hidden biases and power relations that underlie generative AI and how this may affect the selection of sources reproducing hierarchies and disparities. Ananya Sharma reflects on undergoing projects aimed at constructing context- and culture-specific generative AI software, and the conditions under which these can either contribute to decolonise generative AI or fuel forms of techno-nationalism.

The publication can be found .

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Nayan Chanda speaks about Cambodia during Presidency of Jimmy Carter

Nayan Chanda, Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at 51²č¹Ż, spoke on a panel organised by The Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee on January 7, 2024. Together with several other speakers, prof. Chanda reflected on President Carter's record addressing the consequences of the US war in Indochina.

The entire event is available for viewing , with Prof. Chanda's talk beginning at 2:30:00.

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