Dr. Pavan Kumar is a scholar of International Relations and Indian Politics. He earned his PhD from the Centre for International Politics, Organisation, and Disarmament, Jawaharlal Nehru University. His PhD examined Vallabhbhai Patel’s Approach to India’s Foreign Policy. His MPhil thesis ‘Morality in International Politics’ compared the moral world views of Niccolo Machiavelli and Immanuel Kant. He received the University Grant Commission’s Junior Research and Senior Research Fellowship for M.Phil. and PhD. He has passed the National Eligibility Test (NET) in three subjects: Political Science, International Relations and Area Studies, and Defence and Strategic Studies.

He has taught BA, MA, and M.Phil. courses at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi, and Mumbai University. In his teaching career of more than eight years, he has taught courses on Theories of International Relations, World Politics, India’s Foreign Policy, Indian Political Economy, Constitutional Government and Democracy in India, Political Process in India, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Indian Political Thought, and Western Political Philosophy. He has also worked as a research consultant at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. At ISAS, he assisted Professor C Raja Mohan in his research projects. His research interests include India’s foreign policy, India and China in Nepal, Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian politics, caste, and gender in International Relations.

He has published widely on India’s foreign policy and Indian politics in peer-reviewed journals.His research papers and reviews have appeared in International Studies, International Affairs, Millennial Asia: An International Journal of Asian Studies, and Political Studies Review. He has also co-authored chapters in volumes published by Palgrave Macmillan. He has appeared at a global adda discussion on Caste and International Relations hosted by Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement. He also appeared on Suno India’s podcast Beyond Nation and State on Caste and Indian Foreign Policy. Currently, he is co-editing (with Dr. Kalathmika Natarajan from the University of Exeter and Dr. Vineet Thakur from Leiden University) a special issue of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy on Caste and Diplomacy.

His recent publications deal with climate change, politics in the Indo-Pacific, morality in international politics, and India-Japan relations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.