Mayuri Banerjee

Dr. Mayuri Banerjee is a Associate Fellow with the East Asia Centre at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi where she focuses on Chinese foreign policy and strategy and Chinese media narratives. She holds a PhD from Jadavpur University. Prior to MP-IDSA she worked as Research Assistant at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Kolkata. She was a recipient of the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) Masters’ Fellowship in 2015 and was also part of Indian Young Fellow Delegation to Taiwan in 2024. Some of her writings have been published as web commentaries in ORF Expert Speak, South Asian Voices (Stimson Centre, USA) and web portals like The Kootneeti.

Associate Fellow

Publication

Mobilising China’s One-Child Generation: Education, Nationalism and Youth Militarisation in the PRC

The Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress, on September 2024, adopted a revised National Defense Education Law which besides expanding the outreach of the campaign to the larger society aims to strengthen national defence education for the Chinese youth in schools, colleges and institutions of higher education. According to a Global Times report, the revised law instructs that national defence education on campus should raise awareness among students of their legal obligation to perform military service

Where did the COVID-19 virus come from? The mystery-solving race

This book review examines the book 'Where Did the COVID-19 Virus Come From? The Mystery Solving Race' by Dr. Monali C. Rahalkar-Bahulikar and Dr. Rahul A. Bahulikar. The book explores the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and highlights the possibility that the virus was engineered through gain-of-function research. The review situates the book's detailed investigation of the origins of COVID-19 within the significant policy lessons on biosafety and the risks of gain-of-function research.

The Nehru Years: An International History of Indian Non-Alignment

Originating in the wake of cold war bipolarity, non-alignment became the dominant approach under Nehru, until the early 1960s to navigate India’s engagement with the international system. Faced with volatility of superpower contestation, the policy of non-alignment described as ‘leading ourselves’Footnote1 served as the basis for India’s diplomatic interventions in addressing cold war politics around decolonisation, regional conflicts, disarmament and nuclear arms control. The military rout in the 1962 Sino-Indian war which knocked India out of the ‘world of its own making’, marked a major rupture point in the Indian strategic outlook. A re-evaluation of India’s foreign policy objectives and strategies in the aftermath of the conflict led to reduced enthusiasm for non-alignment as New Delhi engineered an insular foreign policy approach, with more focus towards its immediate periphery and regional interests and recalibrating ties with major powers like the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Soviet Union (SU).