Profile

My work ranges across historical and contemporary international relations, international thought, and foreign policy.

As regards the first, I am interested in the international relations of South Asia, both historical and modern, as well as contemporary international politics. This interest has resulted in multiple publications/research projects around sovereignty and territoriality in modern South Asia, including a book titled The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan (OUP, 2021). Current interests in this field are two-fold. Firstly, the contemporary international relations of the West, especially in the context of the challenges posed by authoritarian powers and forces. And secondly, the geopolitics of 18th and 19th century Hindustan and the emergence of modern South Asia as a connected and contested geopolitical field.   

With regard to the second, I am interested in the conservative ideas that have fashioned India’s identity and variously conceptualized its role and purpose in world affairs since the last quarter of the 19th century. I am also working on a book that examines the intellectual and practical efforts made to create a regional federation in late-colonial South Asia. Tentatively titled The United States of South Asia, this project combines my interests in international thought and modern South Asian international relations.

Lastly, I am interested in contemporary Indian foreign policy, especially its ideational underpinnings and how policy makers manage political challenges as they pursue Indian interests.

I am open to supervising focussed doctoral research that belongs to any of the fields mentioned above.