Chair
Amb. (Retd.) P S Raghavan
Chairman, National Security Advisory Board; Former Ambassador to Russia, the Czech Republic and Ireland

About:
Ambassador Raghavan is Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, which advises India’s National Security Council on issues of security and strategic affairs.

In a 36-year diplomatic career, he has served in different capacities in USSR, Poland, United Kingdom, Vietnam and South Africa. He was India’s Ambassador to Russia (2014-16), Ireland (2007-11) and Czechia (2004-07). From 2000 to 2004, he served in the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, dealing with Foreign Affairs, Defence, National Security, Space and Atomic Energy. He also founded and headed the Development Partnership Administration during his tenure at the Ministry of External Affairs, which implements India’s projects abroad.He was also Secretary (Economic Relations), steering India’s external economic engagement, and Secretary overseeing Administration and e-governance.

Lead Speaker
Amb. (Retd.) Rajendra Abhyankar
Visiting Professor of Practice, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Former Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Syria

About:
Rajendra Abhyankar retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 2005 after 36 years of serving as India's Ambassador to the European Union and holding diplomatic roles in Cyprus, Syria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and San Francisco. After retirement, from 2005-2009, Abhyankar was the founding Director, and taught, at the Centre for West Asian Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. He was also the Director, India at the Asia Foundation from 2005 to 2011.

From 2012 to 2019, Abhyankar served as a Professor of Practice of Diplomacy at the Paul O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington, and from May 2021 to May 2023, was a Visiting Professor at the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University. Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor of Practice, on a one-year contract, at Flame University in Pune, his hometown.

Discussant
Dr. Kajari Kamal
Associate Professor, the Takshashila Institution

About:
Dr. Kajari Kamal is an Associate Professor at Takshashila Institution, Bangalore. She has designed the course curriculum and teaches Kautilya’s Arthashastra through webinars and contact workshops. Her research focuses on the concept of ‘strategic culture’ in the Indian context.

She is a graduate in History from Lady Sri Ram College (1995-1998) and a postgraduate in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (1998-2000). She has received her doctoral degree from the University of Hyderabad. Her PhD thesis titled, “Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Indian Strategic Culture: A Comparative Study of Two Phases of India’s Foreign Policy, 1947-1964 and 1998-2014”, reflects the convergence of her interest in ancient Indian historical text and contemporary strategic studies. Her dissertation assesses the salience of Kautilyan ideas to better understand India’s foreign policy.

Discussant
Dr Saurabh Mishra
Associate Professor, Amity Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Amity University

About:
Dr. Saurabh Mishra is an Associate Professor at the Amity Institute for Defence & Strategic Studies (AIDSS), Noida. Prior to AIDSS, he was with premier Indian think tanks – Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses – in New Delhi. He received his PhD from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, for his thesis on “Globalisation and Transnational Conflict: In the Context of Expansion and Cultural Homogeneity” (2013). His areas of interest are Globalisation, International Institutions, Peace and Conflict, Africa, and International Relations Theory. He has worked primarily on India and United Nations, and issues regarding Africa. In addition to these, he has co-edited three volumes on “Kautilya and His Vocabulary”.

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