Avinash Paliwal

Avinash Paliwal is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Deputy Director of the South Asia Institute at SOAS University of London.Previous to this he taught Defence Studies at King’s College London and was the Defence Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Regional Security Research Centre at King's.

He specialises in foreign and security policy analysis with regional focus on South Asia, Afghanistan, and Myanmar. His book, My Enemy’s Enemy - India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal, details India’s role in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to the US withdrawal. His current research is focused on India’s foreign policymaking processes towards Myanmar since Independence (1947).

He holds an MA and PhD in International Relations from King’s College London, and a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Delhi. Formerly a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, Avinash worked as a foreign affairs journalist before entering academia.