Dr. Petr Topychkanov is a leading expert on strategic security, nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, and South Asian affairs. He heads the Sector for New Challenges in South and Southeast Asia at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is also an Assistant Professor at the School of World Politics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, where he serves as Director of the Master’s Programme on Regional Issues in World Politics. In addition, he is an Associate Senior Researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme.
Dr. Topychkanov received his PhD in 2009 from the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University. From 2006 to 2017, he was a Research Fellow with the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Non-Proliferation Programme. His research focuses on nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, arms control, strategic stability, emerging technologies, and security dynamics in South Asia, particularly India–Pakistan relations. His recent work also examines the growing impact of space and advanced technologies on regional security. In 2025, he edited the collective study Greater Indian Ocean: Security Issues, published by IMEMO RAS, and authored the article “India-Pakistan Competition in Space Technologies” in Pathways to Peace and Security. Through his academic research, teaching, and policy engagement, Dr. Topychkanov contributes to international debates on strategic stability, regional security, and the evolving technological dimensions of global arms control and non-proliferation.
