Akriti Vasudeva Kalyankar is a Fellow with the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center, with over 13 years of experience working across think-tanks and media in the United States and India. A leading expert on Indo-Pacific security and emerging technology policy, her research focuses on U.S.-China-India strategic dynamics, balance of power politics in Southern Asia and the Indo-Pacific, the geopolitics of artificial intelligence, U.S.-India defense and strategic cooperation, and Indian foreign policy.
She has authored various book chapters, journal articles, and reports on South Asian and Indo-Pacific security. Her analysis has also appeared on or been cited in Bloomberg, BBC, Foreign Policy, Nikkei Asia, NPR, The Washington Post, The Diplomat, and War on the Rocks, among others. She has also held the positions of Managing Editor and subsequently Editor-in-Chief of South Asian Voices, an online magazine featuring strategic analysis and commentary on the security, politics, and economics of the subcontinent. She occasionally lectures in the School of Professional and Area Studies at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute.
Drawing on her research and regional expertise, Akriti has designed, co-led, and supported a range of Track II dialogues and war gaming exercises focused on South Asian crisis escalation and Indo-Pacific contingencies. Previously, she worked as a reporter for two of the largest English-language dailies in India, The Indian Express and Hindustan Times. She has also held research positions at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. and the Manohar Parrikar-Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, among others.
She is a native Hindi speaker with elementary proficiency in Urdu and Marathi. She holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, and a bachelor’s degree in information technology engineering from the University of Mumbai.
