Dr. Shishir Upadhyaya

Commander Dr. Shishir Upadhyaya (Retd.) is a former defence intelligence officer, Ph.D. (International Relations and Security Studies) from the University of Wollongong in Australia, with vast and diverse experience including the Indian Navy, industry, think tanks and academia.

His naval experience includes positions of responsibility in various operational, training and staff appointments, and two command tenures at sea. As an intelligence officer he specialised in Indo-Pacific security and defence diplomacy and worked on several important assignments earning a commendation medal by the Chief of the Naval Staff.

His industry experience includes senior managerial positions at leading aerospace, defence and maritime consulting companies such as IHS Markit and Lloyds in Singapore.

Dr. Upadhyaya was a research fellow at the National Maritime Foundation at New Delhi, adjunct faculty at the Defence Services Staff College and Associate Professor at the Gujarat Maritime University. He was also awarded a Fellowship of the Indo-Pacific Symposium by the United States Department of Defence.

His areas of interest broadly include international relations, public international law focussed on laws of armed conflict and the law of the sea, elements of national power, and Indo-Pacific regional security.

His latest book titled India’s Maritime Strategy-Balancing Regional Ambitions and China, was published by Routledge (London and New York) in September 2019. He has also authored numerous other books, journal articles/ book chapters and media commentaries. He is an enlisted South Asia correspondent to the world-famous Janes Defence Weekly and Navy International, and geopolitics contributor to Russia TV.