Soumya Awasthi

Oct 13

Dr Soumya Awasthi is a freelance consultant and is currently working on a project on Afghanistan’s security. Simultaneously she is also a resource person and consultant for the Indian Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs. Previously she was a consultant with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in London.

She completed her Doctorate at the Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament at the School of International Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her thesis examined the 'Religious Discourses and their Impact on Regional and Global Geopolitics: A Study of Deobandi in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan'. As a part of her fieldwork for PhD, Soumya has visited Afghanistan, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir and interviewed various armed group members. For her thesis, Soumya also conducted field surveys in different parts of India.

Dr Awasthi has co-authored a book on terrorist organisations, A Compendium of Terrorist Groups (Vivekananda International Foundation, 2022), profiling forty-eight groups and discussing their ideology, modus operandi and organisational structure at length. One of her current research areas is de-radicalisation programmes in India, wherein she looks at the strengths and challenges of India's counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation programmes. Simultaneously, she is also working on a handbook on Islamic terminology.

She has also co-edited India's Nuclear Titans: Biographic Tales (Vitasta Publishers, 2023). She written regularly for the Jamestown Foundation, Observer Research Foundation, Hindustan Times, and other national and international platforms. Dr Awasthi had the privilege to supervise the dissertations of the student officers at the National Defence College, Army War College and Defence Services Staff College Wellington.