SAFN Washington Recognizes Renowned MP-IDSA Scholar Dr. Smruti S. Pattanaik as Honorary Chair and Senior Fellow of the SAFN India Node

Washington, DC (July 20, 2025) – The South Asia Foresight Network (SAFN), a prominent South Asian think tank under the Millennium Project, is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Smruti S. Pattanaik, a distinguished scholar from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi, as Chair of the India Node and Senior Fellow at SAFN. Dr Smruti S Pattanaik is a Research Fellow (SS) at the MP-IDSA. Her area of specialisation is South Asia. Her current research project is titled as “India’s Response to China’s Presence in South Asia: Challenges and Policy Options”. Welcoming the appointment, SAFN Executive Director Asanga Abeyagoonasekera stated:“Dr. Pattanaik brings a wealth of expertise and decades of research experience in South Asian geopolitics. Her appointment significantly enhances SAFN’s regional engagement and thought leadership.”

Dr Pattanaik has been a recipient of many international fellowships. She was a Visiting Asia Fellow (Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok) at the Department of International Relations, Dhaka University in 2004 and follow-up grantee in 2007, researching on politics of identity in Bangladesh. She was a recipient of Kodikara Award in 1999 (RCSS, Colombo), a Post-doctoral Fellow at FMSH (Fondation Maison des Science de l’Homme), and was attached to the Centre for International Relations and Research (CERI, Science Po), Paris. She was selected to attend the Symposium on the East Asian Security (SEAS) Program conducted by the US State Department and USPACOM in 2011. She was a Visiting Fellow (September-October 2011) at the International Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), she was a Visiting Professor on ICCR’s India Chair at the University of Colombo for a semester.

She has lectured on India’s foreign policy and South Asia at the Colombo University, Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Asia Centre in the University of Melbourne, University of Karachi, University of Peshawar and University of Dhaka.

She was the Course Director of the India-Bangladesh Studies Programme jointly conducted by Jamia Millia Islamia and Dhaka University. She developed a course on “Political Developments in Bangladesh 1971-2010” as part of the European Union-funded project on Curriculum Development on Peace- building in Europe and South Asia, organised by the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia in 2011.

Dr Pattanaik has published more than 100 research articles and book chapters in various peer-reviewed journals and books both in India and abroad. She has delivered lectures on security issues both in India and abroad. She has authored a book titled Elite Perception in Foreign Policy: Role of Print Media in Influencing India-Pakistan Relations 1989-1999 (Manohar Publishers & RCSS: 2004), and a Monograph titled Afghanistan and its Neighbourhood: In Search of a Stable Future (PRIO-IDSA, 2013). She has edited two books South Asia: Envisioning a Regional Future, Pentagon Press, Delhi, (2011) and Four Decades of India Bangladesh Relations: Historical Imperatives and Future Direction, Gyan Publishing House, (2012), and two reports titled Pakistan on the Edge (2013) and Unending Violence in Pakistan: Analysing the Trend (2014). She is a member of MP-IDSA’s task force on neighbouring countries. She is a columnist for The Kathmandu Post and also has contributed to the Daily Star and Dhaka Tribune (Bangladesh) and is on the Editorial Board of MP-IDSA’s flagship journal, Strategic Analysis published by Francis & Taylor, London.

SAFN warmly welcomes Dr. Smruti S. Pattanaik and looks forward to her leadership and scholarship in shaping strategic foresight across South Asia.

For more information, please visit www.southasiaforesight.net