Introduction

Dr Nishchal N Pandey is Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu, Convener of the Consortium of South Asian Think-Tanks and a well-known Nepali academic. He was also Executive Director of the Institute of Foreign Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal where he worked for eight years (1998-2006). He was Advisor to the National Planning Commission of Nepal (1997) and recently a member of the high-level task force on foreign policy under the chairmanship of the Foreign Minister (2018).

Dr Pandey was Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (2006-2007); Visiting Fellow at the University of Hull (2009); and Visiting Fellow at the German Institute of International and Security Affairs, Berlin (2013). A man of letters, Dr Pandey is author of several books on Nepal’s foreign policy and peace process and has edited 12 other books. His books include New Nepal: The Faultlines (SAGE, 2008) and India’s Northeastern Region (Manohar Publishers, 2008). In 2015, Dr Pandey was a participant of the ‘US-South Asia Leader Engagement Program on Terrorism as a Threat to Global Security’ organised by Harvard Kennedy School.

Areas of Interest and Expertise

• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
• Nepal’s Internal Politics and Foreign Policy
• Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
• Regional Cooperation in South Asia