BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

Prof. Muchkund Dubey, President of Council for Social Development (CSD), had an illustrious career in the Indian Foreign Service, serving, among others, as India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh and the Permanent Representative to U.N. Organizations in Geneva. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service after occupying the post of Foreign Secretary to the Government of India. He then joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University as Professor where he taught for close to eight years. As an international civil servant, he served at the headquarters of both the United Nations and the UNDP. He was the Indian Member on the Executive Board of UNESCO, Chairman of the Common School System Commission, Bihar, and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of Sikkim. His areas of specialization have been international economic relations,

Dipak Gyawali is currently Pragya (Academician) of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and research director of the non-profit Nepal Water Conservation Foundation. He is a hydroelectric power engineer and a political economist who, during his time as Nepal’s Minister of Water Resources, initiated reforms in the electricity and irrigation sectors focused on decentralization and promotion of rural participation in governance. Mr Gyawali has been conducting interdisciplinary research on the interface between technology and society, and has published numerous articles on the topic of water, energy, dams, and climate change issues.

TAKAKO HIROSE is a professor in South Asian Politics and International Politics at Senshu University, Tokyo. She previously served as the Atomic Energy Commissioner of Japan in 2006-2009 and as a member of the Council on Security and Defense Capabilities in the New Era appointed by the Prime Minister of Japan in 2010. Dr. Hirose`s publication includes Japanese Emerging Nationalism and Its New Asia Policy (Delhi Policy Group, 2008) and Two Asian Democracies: A Comparative Study of the Single Predominant Party Systems of India and Japan (Konark Publishers, 1994). Her recent articles include “India’s Nuclear Policy: Promotion of Nuclear Energy Despite Fukushima, Political and Legal Analyses of Nuclear Power” (Studies in Political Science Vol. VIII, 2012).

Gowher Rizvi is a Bangladeshi historian, scholar and academic. Currently he is the international affairs advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Prior to that, he was MacArthur fellow in International Reelations at Nuffield College, Oxford University. He was an Editor of Contemporary South Asia and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His publications cover the disciplines of history, international relations and public policy.