Commander Dr. Shishir Upadhyaya (Retd.) is a former Indian naval intelligence officer, his PhD is in International Relations and Security Studies from the University of Wollongong in Australia, with vast and diverse experience including the Indian Navy, industry, think tanks and academia.

His naval experience includes positions of responsibility in various operational, training and staff appointments, and two command tenures at sea. As an intelligence officer, he specialised in Indo-Pacific security and defence diplomacy and worked on several important assignments earning a commendation medal by the Chief of the Naval Staff. Later he was also awarded the Fellowship of Indo-Pacific Security (FIPS) by the United States Department of Defence/ INDOPACOM at Hawaii for his research in the field of maritime security.

Dr. Shishir industry experience includes senior managerial positions at leading aerospace, defence and maritime consulting companies such as IHS Markit and Lloyds in Singapore.

Dr. Upadhyaya was a research fellow at the National Maritime Foundation at New Delhi, adjunct faculty the Defence Services Staff College and Associate Professor at the Gujarat Maritime University and the OP Jindal Global University.

His areas of interest broadly include international affairs and security, public international law focussed on laws of armed conflict and the law of the sea, and Indo-Pacific regional security. He has conducted undergraduate and postgraduate courses in IR, national security, international law and intelligence research.

Dr. Shishir latest book titled India’s Maritime Strategy-Balancing Regional Ambitions and China was published by Routledge (London and New York). He has also authored numerous other books, journal articles/ book chapters and media commentaries. He is an enlisted South Asia correspondent to the world-famous Janes Defence Weekly and Navy International, and geopolitics contributor to Russia TV.