User:Enlightened Mariner/sandbox

<About = Captain (Dr) Alok Bansal is Director, India Foundation. He is also the Secretary General of Asian Eurasian Human Rights Forum, an organisation accorded ECOSOC status by UNESCO. He is also a member of the Planning Board of the UT of Ladakh. He was the founder Executive Director of the South Asian Institute for Strategic Affairs (SAISA) and the facilitator of India Policy Group on Afghanistan for Track II Dialogues by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. He was a visiting professor at the Pakistan Studies Programme of MMAJ Academy of International Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia. He has been the Executive Director of the National Maritime Foundation and has also worked with security think tanks like IDSA, and CLAWS. He has also been associated with Jammu Kashmir Study Centre (JKSC), since inception. He has an MSc and MPhil degree in Defence and Strategic Studies from University of Madras and Doctorate in International Relations from JNU.

He served in the Indian Navy for 32 years, before seeking premature retirement. He participated in Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka and has commanded two warships. He has authored two books titled Balochistan in Turmoil: Pakistan at Cross Roads and Gilgit-Baltistan and its Saga of Unending Human Rights Violations and has co-authored a book titled “Occupied Territories of Bharat”. He is currently working on a book on Gwadar Port and its Regional Impact. He has written extensively in International and Indian professional journals as well as for Indian, Pakistani and international newspapers. He has participated in Track II Dialogues with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Taiwan and was part of the Indian Team at Indo-Australian and Indo-Malaysian Strategic Dialogues. He was also an International Observer invited to observe the Presidential Elections in Uzbekistan in October 2021. He also appears regularly at various radio and television talk shows.

He was the Executive Editor of Maritime Affairs, a Routledge journal and has been reviewing research papers slated for publication in national and international refereed journals like Small Wars and Insurgency, Politics Religion & Ideology, Eurasia Border Review, Strategic Analysis and Journal for Defence Studies. He is an external examiner for M Phil Dissertations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has also supervised over twenty post graduate dissertations as an examiner for post graduate students of the University of Madras. His research interests include South Asia with special focus on Af-Pak region, Indian Ocean Region, Indo-US Relations, Indian Diaspora, Defence and Maritime Issues. His major publications are as follows:-https://indiafoundation.in/directors/-->