Last updated January 17, 2008
 

SWARNA RAJAGOPALAN

 
 
  

Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.

Ph.D. in Political Science, October 1998.

Dissertation Title: "National Integration: The State in Search of Community."

 

Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA.
M.A. in International Relations, 1985

University of Bombay, Elphinstone College, Bombay, India

B.A. in Political Science, 1984.
 
 

Publications

Books

Monograph

State and Nation in South Asia, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, 2001. (Indian reprint, Viva Books, January 2006).

Anthologies

Security and South Asia: Ideas, Institutions and Initiatives, edited, Routledge India, 2006.

Women, Security, South Asia: A Clearing in the Thicket, co-edited with Farah Faizal, Sage, September 2005.

Re-Distribution of Authority: A Cross-Regional Perspective, co- edited with Jeanie J. Bukowski, Praeger, Westport, 2000.

Articles And Book Chapters

“Peace Accords in Northeast India: Lessons for Peacebuilding,” East-West Center Washington Policy Studies Series (forthcoming).

“Silver Linings: Natural Disasters, International Relations and Political Change in South Asia, 2004-5,” Defense & Security Analysis, Vol 22 ed 4, December 2006.

“Securing Rama’s World,” in Swarna Rajagopalan, ed., Security and South Asia: Ideas, Institutions and Initiatives, Routledge India, 2006.

"The Dravida Nadu Experience: Security, State-building and Secession from a Peninsular Perspective,” in Gopalji Malviya, ed., Security Dimensions of Peninsular India, Centre for Security Analysis, Chennai, 2005.

“Women and Security: In search of a new paradigm,” in Farah Faizal and Swarna Rajagopalan, eds., Women, Security, South Asia: A Clearing in the Thicket, Sage, September 2005.

“Small States in South Asian International Affairs” for Devin Hagerty, ed., South Asia in World Politics, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.

“Research, policy, reality: Women, security, South Asia,” in Sustainable Development: Bridging the Research/ Policy Gaps in Southern Contexts. Volume 2: Social Policy. Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages 80-97, 2005.

“Of Militants, Martyrs, Nations and States: Kashmir and Sri Lanka,” special issue on “Rethinking Terrorism,” Swords and Ploughshares, bulletin of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Winter 2003.

“Secularism in India: Accepted Principle, Contentious Interpretation,” in William Safran, ed., The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion and Politics, Frank Cass, London, 2003.

“Re-building Afghanistan: Lessons from South Asia” (Comment), Seminar, February 2002.

“Demarcating Units, Re-distributing Authority: Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka,” in Jeanie J. Bukowski and Swarna Rajagopalan, eds., Re-distribution of Authority: A Cross-Regional Perspective, Praeger, Westport, CT, May 2000.

“Internal Unit Demarcation and National Identity,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Volume 5:3-4, Fall and Winter 1999, pp.191-211. (Special journal issue reprinted as William Safran and Ramon Maiz, eds., Identity and Territorial Autonomy in Plural Societies, Frank Cass, London and Portland, Oregon, 2000, and in Spanish as, Identidad y Autogobierno En Sociedades Multiculturales, Ariel, 2002.)

“National Integration in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan: Constitutional and Elite Visions,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Volume 3:4, Winter 1997, pp.1-38.

“A Traveler’s Collection of Tales,” Nethra, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Volume 1:4, July-September 1997, pp. 12-34.

“Identifying An Agenda: How And Why Ethnic Groups And Nations Choose Their Goal,” Occasional Paper, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, November 1994.

“Management Of Diversity Through Integrative Strategies,” Swords and Ploughshares, bulletin of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Fall 1994.

Media publications

Blogs

It's Just Me.

From Leiden Centraal, an illustrated online travelogue on the Netherlands.

Print

“Stirrings of change in Maldives,” Foreign Panorama section, Deccan Herald, October 24, 2004.

“The Maldives: On the cusp of change?” National Review, Vol. 2, No. 9, September 2004.

“Sri Lanka: Politics, War and Peace,” National Review, Vol. I No. 3, December 2003.

Electronic

“A Season of Political Change in South Asia, Focus: Maldives,” Indogram.com, May 16, 2005.

“A Season of Political Change in South Asia, Focus: Bhutan,” Indogram.com, May 4, 2005.

“A Season Of Political Change In South Asia, Focus: Nepal,” Indogram.com, April 10, 2005.

“A Report Card for March 8th, 2005,” Indogram.com, March 10, 2005.

“In just a few well-chosen words. (No, no, not mine!)” Indogram.com, January 23, 2005.

“Towards the turning of the tide,” Indogram.com, 3 January, 2005.

“Islamabad Diary, December 2004,” Indogram.com, 22 December, 2004.

“Lankai: Amaidhi Thodara India Yenna Cheyya Vendum?” (In Tamil; Translation of “Sri Lanka: Can Peace Be Seized From The Jaws Of Conflict?”) Thisaigal, December 2003.

Reports

Within and Beyond Borders: An Independent Review of Post-Conflict Fund Support to Refugees and the Internally Displaced, Social Development Papers, Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction, World Bank, October 2004.

Briefings

Chaitanya Brief Volume 1, No. 3: Keeping South Asia’s Children Safe: The Child Rights-Security Interface, November 14, 2005.

Chaitanya Brief Volume 1, No. 2: Post-Tsunami International Relations: A Sea Change? June 26, 2005.

Chaitanya Brief Volume 1, No. 1: Maldives: Democratic Transition in the offing? June 4, 2005.

The LTTE Proposals and Sri Lanka’s Peace Prospects, November 2, 2003.

Book Reviews

Review of Roland Paris, At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004, in International Studies (Jawaharlal Nehru University), XLIII:1, January-March 2006.

Review of Nigel Biggar, editor, Burying The Past: Making Peace And Doing Justice After Civil Conflict, Georgetown University Press, Washington DC, 2003, in Millennium Journal of International Studies (forthcoming).

Review of Geeti Sen, editor, India: A National Culture? Sage Publications, New Delhi and India International Centre, 2003, in Journal of Asian Studies (forthcoming).

Review of Michael M. Cernea and Christopher McDowell, editors, Risks and Reconstruction: Experiences of Resettlers and Refugees, World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000, in Contemporary South Asia, 11:2, 2002.

Review of Stephen Peter Rosen, Societies & Military Power: India and Its Armies, Cornell, 1996, in International Journal of Hindu Studies, I:3, December 1997.

Review of Abdul Aziz and David Arnold, ed., Decentralised Governance in Asian Countries, Sage, New Delhi, 1996, in Contemporary South Asia, VI:3, November 1997.

Review of Stig Toft Madsen, State, Society and Human Rights in South Asia, Manohar, 1996, in Contemporary South Asia, VII:3, November 1998.

Online learning resources

For Chaitanya–the Policy Consultancy, archived here.

“The Iraq Question,” http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~swarnar/iraqpage.htm. February-March 2003. Now available at http://www.swarnar.com/iraqpage.htm.

“On events in Gujarat.” http://pantheon.yale.edu/~sr323/gujevents.htm.Resource page created to provide contextual information and resource links after communal riots broke out in India, March 2002. Now available at http://www.swarnar.com/gujevents.htm.

Alliance for Lifelong Learning, Learning Guide on India-Pakistan conflict (http://www.allianceforlifelonglearning.org/er/IndiaPakistanK.html), January-February 2002. Now available at http://www.alllearn.org/er/lg/IndiaPakistanK.shtml.

“Contextualizing the events of September 11 and thereafter.” (http://pantheon.yale.edu/~sr323/sept11.htm). This is an online resource page maintained October-November 2001, containing links to background information and analyses of the events of September 11, 2001 and thereafter. Now available at http://www.swarnar.com/sept11.htm.

Other writing

Accessible at http://www.swarnar.com/writing.htm.

 
 
 

Professional Experience

Consultation

Through Chaitanya-The Policy Consultancy, May 2005 onwards

"Culture, Politics and Globalization," Summer Study Abroad Program in Chennai, in partnership with Michigan State University Office of Study Abroad, July 2007.

Disasters and Security Forum, Chennai, WISCOMP, September 2006.

Consulting series co-editor, Gender and Non-Traditional Security Project, WISCOMP, January-March 2006.

Post-conflict grant application referee, World Bank, May and July 2005.

Independent Consultation

Reconciliation ideas in the Indian political tradition, International IDEA-WISCOMP (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance-Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace) consultation on reconciliation, New Delhi, November 2004.

Potential interventions related to women and conflict in Asia and their presentation at United States Agency for International Development regional workshop in Bangkok, USAID/ Juarez and Associates Inc., Los Angeles, July-August 2004.

Review of Sri Lanka poverty reduction report, World Bank, July 2004.

Preparation of program reports, Centre for Security Analysis, Chennai, January 2004.

Evaluation and review of Refugees/IDP grants, World Bank, Summer 2003.

Research

Post-doctoral Fellow, James Madison College, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, Fall 1998-01.
Post-doctoral fellowship with teaching and research commitments. Research on South Asian international relations. Worked with Dr. Mohammed Ayoob. (See also below under ‘Teaching’.)

Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Political Science, Urbana, Illinois, 1996-97.
Library research, transcription and data entry for a project on urban housing networks in Detroit, Michigan.

Research Associate, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Spring and Summer 1996.
Contributed to planning a Residential Workshop for regional scholars on the non-military sources of regional conflict (see above) and the compilation of a directory of scholars, activists, organisations and institutions engaged in South Asian security affairs.

Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, Urbana, Illinois, Summer 1994.
Edited the manuscript of a collection of essays on Indian foreign policy and South Asian international relations by a veteran Indian diplomat, Jagat S. Mehta.

Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, 1989-90.
Worked on a project on governance problems in South Asia, where my work involved library, archival and field research (interviews) on the internal structure and functioning of Indian political parties. The project resulted in a book: Bhabani Sen Gupta, India: Problems of Governance, Konark, Delhi, 1996.

Intern, United Nations, Department for Disarmament Affairs, Research and Information Division, New York, Summer 1985.
Reviewed books for Disarmament quarterly, and wrote a paper on the responses of South Asian states to the Pakistani proposal for a nuclear weapon-free zone.

Teaching

Faculty Co-Director, Michigan State University-Chaitanya Summer Program on Culture, Politics and Globalization, Chennai, 2007.

Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 2002-03.
Teaching courses on comparative politics, international security and South Asia.

Singh Lecturer in South Asian Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 2001-02.
Taught South Asian politics: Governance Issues in South Asia, Identity, Security and Governance in South Asia and Security and Inter-state Relations in South Asia.

Post-doctoral Fellow, James Madison College, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, Fall 1998-01.
Post-doctoral fellowship with teaching and research commitments. Courses include Third World Politics, Economics and Society, Fall 1998; Introduction to Public Affairs, Spring 1998, 2001; Introduction to International Relations and World Security, Fall 1999; Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis, Spring, Fall 2000. (See also under ‘Research’.)

Independent Instructor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Political Science, Urbana, Illinois, 1994-95, 1997-98.
Introduction to International Relations, Fall 1994, Spring 1995; Emerging Nations, Fall 1995, Spring 1998; Introduction to International Security, Fall 1997; Introduction to Political Science, Summer 1998.

Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Political Science, Urbana, Illinois, 1993-94.
Introduction to Comparative Politics, Fall 1993; Introduction to American Politics, Spring 1994.

Lecturer, Sophia College, Bombay, 1988.
Introduction to Political Science; Western Political Thought; Indian Political System.

Relevant experience

Member, Sri Lanka Election Monitoring Team of the US NGO Forum on Sri Lanka and the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace, October 2000.

Participant, Residential Workshop on Sources of Conflict in South Asia: Ethnicity, Refugees and Environment, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 1997.

Participant, First Security, Technology and Arms Control Workshop, Bhurban, Pakistan, May 1993.
 
 

Selected Professional and Community Activities

Informal Consultation

Centre for Security Analysis, A.C.S. Hameed Peace Foundation, American Forum on Global Education.

Manuscript reviews

Women in International Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), Security Studies, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, The India Review, Asian Survey, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (Pakistan) working papers series.

Select List of Invited Presentations

“Post-Tsunami International Relations: A Sea Change?” at the International Conference on Tsunami, Disaster Management and Coastal Development, Chennai, July 31, 2005.

“The Role of Women in Conflict Resolution & Peace Building: The South Asian Experience,” Stella Maris College, Chennai, March 5, 2004.

“Women, Security, South Asia,” Central Illinois Masjid and Islamic Center Weekly Seminar Series, Urbana, Illinois, April 25, 2003.

“Terrorism in Kashmir and Sri Lanka,” ACDIS Millennium Series, seminar series of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 9, 2003.

“Understanding Global Security,” Keynote speaker, Connecticut Council for the Social Studies conference, New Haven, May 16, 2002.

“Ethnic Conflict and Inter-state Relations in South Asia,” University of Connecticut, Storrs, March 4, 2002.

“War, Peace and Other Security Concerns in South Asia,” lecture, Perspectives on South Asia workshop for K-12 teachers organized by the Program in International Educational Resources for International Affairs and the Council on South Asian Studies, Yale University, February 28, 2002.

“Understanding Security,” lecture, Capitol Forum, teachers’ workshop organized by the Yale Center for International & Area Studies, the League of Women Voters of Connecticut and the Office of the Secretary of State of Connecticut, Hartford, Connecticut, February 7, 2002.

“War, Peace and Other Security Concerns in South Asia,” presentation at Schell Center Human Rights Workshop Series, Yale Law School, February 1, 2002.

“Political Climate in Sri Lanka,” presentation at a conference on the Future of South Asia organized by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Office of Continuing Education, Urbana, Illinois, June 1997.
 
For a fuller curriculum vitae, please see the PDF version.