RAUNAK BHATTACHARJEE

Raunak Bhattacharjee is an Honours Graduate in Political Science from Presidency University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. His interests lay in International Relations, Area Studies and Maritime Naval Security Studies with particular emphasis upon the Indian Ocean Region, and he is a realist. His favourite realist scholars include John J Mearsheimer and Graham Allison. He is also interested in the Frankfurt School of Thought, Gramscian Studies and Postmodern School of Thought. He is an avid bibliophile and loves quizzes. He has been associated with Asia in Global Affairs from 2019 as an intern, and under the able guidance of the mentors, he has published 10 original papers and participated in more than 10 webinars as a paper presenter, winning due laurels and very often, being the youngest participant.

His research interests lie in the fields of Security Studies, especially Maritime Naval Security. He has also worked on Populism, Post-colonialism, Marxism and Caste in India. He has completed a paper on challenging Chinese preponderance in the Indian Ocean Region that has been selected for publication at several international journals and for presentation at International Conferences. The paper deals with the important role that shall be played by India in countering Chinese preponderance in this region. After the escalations of the border clashes with India, along the Galwan Valley, the situation has become more precarious and the requirement of an Indian response to the Chinese threat has become quintessential. It is in such a moment, the understanding of Chinese ethics, in particular reference, the understanding of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and China’s Middle Kingdom stance becomes important. The implications of India, countering the same, are also something that he is focusing upon.

He has also focused precisely upon the application of psycho-analytic theories in International Relations, trying to decode Role Conception, and to comprehend behavior of the actors in the arena of global politics. He has written extensively on American political behavior in the contemporary times, and is currently contemplating a possible solution to the Thucydides’ Trap using the balancing variables of India and the European Union. He is focusing his research upon Multipolarities arising across the globe, and concocting a longue durée approach of the same, to understand the comprehend the phenomenological aspect of the same in its brevity.

He holds an unconditional offer for pursuing Masters in International Relations from the University of Essex, UK for the session of 2022-23. He also happens to hold simultaneous offers from the University of Leeds, University of York (UK) and SOAS University of London, UK.