Amitav Acharya

Amitav Acharya is professor of international relations in the School of International Service at the American University, Washington D.C. From July 2001 to January 2007, he was a professor of international affairs and deputy director and head of research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

His previous appointments include professor of political science at York University, Toronto, fellow of the Harvard University Asia Center, senior fellow of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, lecturer in political science at the National University of Singapore, and fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. He held the ASEM Chair in Regional Integration at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2003-04 and was the inaugural Direk Jayanama visiting professor of political science at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand in 2005. He was a visiting scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University during the 2004-05 academic year.

Amitav’s areas of specialization include multilateralism, regionalism, international relations theory, Third World security, international relations of Southeast Asia, and Asian security. He is the founding co-president of the Asian Political and International Studies Association (2002-04), founding secretary-general of the Consortium on Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia), and a vice-president-elect of the International Studies Association (2008-9), the world's largest professional association in international studies.

A Canadian citizen, Amitav was born in Orissa, India, and educated in India and Australia.