Swasti Rao

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Dr. Swasti Rao is Associate Fellow at the Europe and Eurasia Center, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

She has a Masters in Politics (spl’n. IR) and an M.Phil in East Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has completed her PhD in Advanced International Politics from Tsukuba University, Japan. She is a recipient of Japanese Education Ministry Fellowship (MEXT) in 2011 and also a recipient of the ‘Okita Memorial Scholarship’ in 2010 from ICCR.

She holds an adjunct position at the Tokai University, Japan in the capacity of a foreign collaborator for the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) funded research project on “Civil Society and Urban Governance in Asia, 2020-2025”

Her current research project at IDSA is on Conflicts in Europe amidst shifting Global Power Structures: Geometries of Deterrence and Europe’s Indo Pacific outreach as strategies for Threat Balancing. Her other work and research interests explore dimensions of the securitization debate in Europe , Migrant Crisis, Europe’s Outreach to Indo -Pacific, Defence Cooperation between India and Major European Players, Multilateral Cooperation for Space Situational awareness and Maritime Domain Awareness. She also explores Europe- Japan relations and its global implications. She has published with Routledge on intelligence sharing in the Indo Pacific and her forthcoming work with them is on Climate Change and Space Debris issues with special focus on emerging space race.

Before joining MP-IDSA she was Assistant Professor in the Department of Strategic and Security Studies, AMU where she taught courses on European Security, Rise of China and implications for World Order, Research Methodology and UN Peacekeeping.

She has also been Research Associate at the Graduate School of Humanities and Politics at the University of Tsukuba, Japan from 2011-2016.

She has been a Principal Investigator in Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) funded project,”A Comparative and Empirical Study of the Structural Changes in Politics” from 2011-2014.

She is the editor of Either/Or, an academic journal dedicated to international and political affairs.

Dr. Rao has published extensively, delivered talks and lectures at various international universities like Australian National University, Canberra; Gakushuin University and Tokai University, Japan; Giresun University, Turkey; National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico; Thammasat University, Thailand and writes regular Op-ed columns for leading dailies.

She has been involved in syllabus writing for Political Science, CBCS, IGNOU for the year 2020 and has been associated with the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), for collating International Relations Resources and Research Methodology Resources for teachers in Higher Education in 2020 funded by the National Resource Centre for Education, NEUPA
Other Publications

  • Associate Fellow
  • Email: rswasti[dot]mpidsa[at]gov[dot]in
  • Phone: +91 11 2671 7983

Publication

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‘Not just Russian oil and gas, China is dividing Europe—money to metals’

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s article ‘Not just Russian oil and gas, China is dividing Europe—money to metals’ has been published in ‘The Print’ on 12 August 2022.

While the EU realises that China will continue to be a major trade and investment partner, it needs to devise impactful economic strategies to counter Beijing’s economic coercion, says Dr Rao.

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  • Published: 12 August, 2022
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Natural gas is Europe’s Achilles heel. Russia to Germany—everyone’s desperate to diversify

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘Natural gas is Europe’s Achilles heel. Russia to Germany—everyone’s desperate to diversify’ has been published in ‘The Print’ on 29 July 2022.

Putin has a clear edge because turning off gas taps will send shockwaves across European industries, further deepening the global economic crisis, says Dr Rao.

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  • Published: 29 July, 2022
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Why Turkey’s Rise in Russia-Ukraine War is a Masterclass in Balancing, Hedging Strategy

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘Why Turkey’s rise in Russia-Ukraine war is a masterclass in balancing, hedging strategy’ has been published in ‘The Print’ on 01 July 2022.

Maintaining close defence ties with Ukraine while engaging with Russia to achieve foreign policy goals shows Turkey's balancing act has lessons, says Dr Rao.

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  • Published: 1 July, 2022
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Five Eyes and the Evolving Indo Pacific Paradigm

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s chapter ‘Five Eyes and the Evolving Indo Pacific Paradigm’ has been published in the edited volume ‘Multilateralism in the Indo-Pacific: Conceptual and Operational Challenges’, published by Routledge, Oxford and New York .

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  • Published: 14 June, 2022
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Corruption in Russian Military and Putin’s Future Strategy

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s article ‘Corruption in Russian Military and Putin’s Future Strategy’ has been published in Taaza Khabar News on 21 April 2022.

The Russian military vulnerabilities in the Ukrainian war is one of the products of its systemic corruption that has thrived under Putin. The direction of the war will now depend on how far Putin is planning to ramp up the Russian offensive to claim victory, says Dr Rao.

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  • Published: 21 April, 2022
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The Ukrainian Conundrum

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s article ‘The Ukrainian Conundrum’ has been published in ‘The Pioneer’ on 06 March, 2022.
The Russia-Ukraine war is changing the very foundations of the global order. As the debris settle, we will see a more militarised Europe & a more multipolar world with repercussions for India's interests as well, writes Dr Rao.

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  • Published: 6 March, 2022
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China’s Economic Coercion in the EU has Caught the Chinese on the Wrong Foot

Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s article ‘China’s Economic Coercion in the EU has caught the Chinese on the Wrong Foot’ has been published by
the Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA) on 28 February 2022.

China’s divisive tactic in the EU is failing as it sets a “bad international precedent” which will discourage other European countries from trusting China as a bankable economic partner, further thwart the China- EU investment deal, internationalise the issue and weaken the now ‘16+1’ mechanism as the Czech Republic and Slovenia refuse to buckle down to China’s pressures, says Dr Rao.

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  • Published: 28 February, 2022