Dr Avinash Paliwal

Overview

Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD)

PhD Admissions and Research Tutor

Name:: Dr Avinash Paliwal
Email address:: ap88@soas.ac.uk
Telephone:: 020 7898 4454
Address:: SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Building:: Russell Square: College Buildings
Office No:: 4405
Academic Support Hours:: Wednesday, 10 AM - 12 PM

Biography

Avinash is Deputy Director of the SOAS South Asia Institute and Lecturer in Diplomacy and Public Policy at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD). 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 (RSRC) at the same university. An International Relations scholar, Avinash specialises in foreign policy analysis (FPA) 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). Avinash won the UK-India Education Research Initiative – Trilateral Research in Partnership (UKIERI-TRIP) in 2013 to conduct research on India and Pakistan’s engagement in Afghanistan, and was awarded the prestigious Defence Studies Research Studentship and the King’s Continuation Scholarship for his doctoral research.

Avinash chaired the Afghanistan Studies Group (2013-15) at KCL, and managed the King’s-Chevening Parliamentary Leadership Programme wherein Indian parliamentarians were hosted at King’s and exposed to the expertise offered by the university.

Avinash 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.

Teaching

Programmes Convened

MA Global Security and Strategy (Online)

PhD Students supervised

Rashid Ansari, The UK’s PREVENT Strategy and state relations with Muslim communities.

MA Global Diplomacy – South Asia (online)

MA Global Diplomacy – International Security (online)

Publications

Authored Books

Paliwal, Avinash (2017) My Enemy's Enemy - India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal. London: Hurst.

Articles

Paliwal, Avinash (2020) '"How Many Miles Make an Inch?": Centre-State Relations and the 1967 India-Burma Boundary Agreement'. India Review, (18) 5, pp 596-612.

Paliwal, Avinash (2020) '‘A cat’s paw of Indian reactionaries?’ Strategic Rivalry and Domestic Politics at the India-China-Myanmar Tri-junction'. Asian Security, (16) 1, pp 73-89.

Paliwal, Avinash (2019) 'A Cautious Balance - Explaining India’s Approach towards Afghanistan’s Peace Process'. Asian Security. [Forthcoming]

Paliwal, Avinash (2015) 'India's Taliban Dilemma - To Engage or to Contain?'. Journal of Strategic Studies, (40) 1-2, pp 35-67.

Paliwal, Avinash (2015) 'Afghanistan's India-Pakistan Dilemma - Advocacy Coalitions in Weak States'. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, (29) 2, pp 465-491.

Book Chapters

Pant, Harsh and Paliwal, Avinash (2018) 'Foreign Policy Analysis and Indian Foreign Policy'. In: Pant, Harsh, (ed.), New Directions in India's Foreign Policy - Theory and Praxis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 106-124.

Paliwal, Avinash (2016) 'Afghanistan-India Relations: Normative Sources of Bilateral Ties'. In: Ogden, Chris, (ed.), New South Asian Security: Six Core Relations. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.

Paliwal, Avinash (2016) 'Afghanistan's India-Pakistan Dilemma: A Balancing Act?'. Afghanistan's Regional Dilemmas: South Asia and Beyond. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.

Paliwal, Avinash (2016) 'Pakistan-Afghan Relations Since 2001: There are no Endgames'. In: Jaffrelot, Christophe, (ed.), Pakistan at the Crossroads: Domestic Dynamics and External Pressures. New York: Columbia University Press, pp 191-218.