Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza is the Founder and Executive Director of the Mantraya Institute for Strategic Studies and a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst. She serves as Visiting Faculty at the Naval War College in Goa, an Affiliate of the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., a Research Fellow at the WeltTrends Institute for International Politics in Potsdam, an International Adviser to the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network in Helsinki, and an Adviser to Independent Conflict Research and Analysis in London. Her research spans state- and peace-building in South Asia, conflict resolution, terrorism and violent extremism, human security, women, peace and security, climate, water and energy security, public policy, the Indo-Pacific, great-power competition, and India’s foreign, maritime, aid, and security policies. Over more than two decades, she has conducted field research across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Africa, and Australia.
Dr. D’Souza was the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2024, marking her second Fulbright award after her 2005–06 fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Her previous appointments include Founding Professor at the Kautilya School of Public Policy, Visiting Fellow at SWP Berlin, Board Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, and research positions at Murdoch University, the National University of Singapore, and the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. She has advised Afghan government institutions, led UNDP-supported local governance work, observed Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential election audit, and supported UN mine-action and development programmes. A recipient of the 2009 President’s Award for Excellence in Research, she has authored and edited works on insurgency, violent extremism, Afghanistan, and South Asian security, and publishes widely in journals and media outlets.
