Brahma Chellaney

Brahma Chellaney is Professor of Strategic Studies at the Centre for Policy Research. He has served as a member of the Policy Advisory Group headed by the Foreign Minister of India. Before that, Professor Chellaney was an adviser to India’s National Security Council until January 2000, serving as convenor of the External Security Group of the National Security Advisory Board.

A specialist on international security and arms control issues, Professor Chellaney has held appointments at the Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and the Australian National University.

He is the author of six books, including Asian Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India and Japan (HarperCollins). Translated into several languages, Asian Juggernaut was published in an English paperback edition  by HarperCollins, New York, in 2010. Details of this international bestseller are available at: http://goo.gl/el7s8

Professor Chellaney’s latest book is Water: Asia’s New Battleground, published by Georgetown University Press, Washington, DC. Water has emerged as a key strategic resource that could determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. The risk of water becoming a trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming is especially high in Asia, which is home to three-fifths of the human population, yet has the lowest per-capita freshwater availability among all continents. Plans to reengineer river flows and overexploit transnational aquifers have only promoted the “securitization” of water.

This interdisciplinary study, by innovatively looking at water and security across Asia, seeks to fill a void in the literature: There are many good studies of subregional water issues in Asia (including in Southeast Asia, China, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East), but none specifically focus on the larger Asian water picture in the context of peace and security. This is the first wide-ranging study of water and peace that examines Asia in its totality and employs this broader framework to thematically focus on critical issues. The book thus covers the entire Asian continent, stretching from Japan to Turkey, and from Central Asia to the Indonesian archipelago. In addition to being the first comprehensive study of the larger geostrategic dimensions of Asian water issues, the book brings out the lessons other continents can draw from Asia’s experiences so as to avert similar challenges. Read further details about this new book at the publisher’s website: http://goo.gl/y4zbl

Another of his publications is a smaller, 100-page book, On the Frontline of Climate Change: International Security Implications (KAF, 2007), with Heela Najibullah.

He has published research papers, among others, in International Security, Orbis, Survival, Washington Quarterly, Security Studies and Terrorism.

Professor Chellaney is also a newspaper columnist and television commentator. He regularly contributes opinion articles to the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the Japan Times, the Asian Age, the Hindustan Times and the Times of India. In 1985, he won a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club (OPC), New York.

Contact: bc@live.in