Avinash Paliwal

Avinash Paliwal is a nonresident scholar in the Carnegie South Asia Program. He is also a reader in international relations at SOAS University of London. His research focuses on India’s foreign and security policies, and the strategic affairs of South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.

His latest book, India’s Near East: A New History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), explores India’s attempts to exert control over its eastern hinterland and the neighboring states of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It was shortlisted for the 2025 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize in India. His first book, My Enemy’s Enemy: India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), examines India’s role in Afghanistan during and after the Cold War. It was translated into Pashto in 2021.

Avinash is a regular columnist at the Hindustan Times, one of the largest and most influential English-language daily newspapers in India. His academic research has been published in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Global Security Studies, The International History Review, Journal of Strategic Studies, and Asian Security, among others.

Avinash was awarded the 2023-25 British Academy Innovation Fellowship and served as the ‘India and South Asia’ analyst at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). Previously, he was the deputy director of the SOAS South Asia Institute, taught defense studies at King’s College London, and was the Defence Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, also at King’s. Avinash holds a MA and PhD in international relations from King’s College London, and a BA (Hons) in economics from the University of Delhi.