Dr Shounak Set, FHEA (Fellow Higher Education Academy, UK) teaches at King’s College London and the UK Defence Academy. A recipient of the European Commission’s Marie Curie Fellowship, Shounak’s expertise lies in nuclear and outer space issues from a strategic studies and foreign policy analysis perspective.

His research outputs include publications in academic journals (e.g. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, China Review, RUSI Journal, Strategic Analysis), as well as thinktanks (e.g. Carnegie Endowment, Royal United Services Institution, Observer Research Foundation and GIGA). His work has received international grants, generated media engagements (e.g. BBC, DW, The Hindu Business Line) and regular exchanges with policymakers from the UK, Europe and India.

Shounak had been nominated for a King’s Education Award for teaching on a year-long module ‘5SSW2062: Statecraft, Warfare and Diplomacy’ at the Department of War Studies, and he is engaged in delivering Professional Military Education at the Joint Services Command & Staff College and the Royal College of Defence Studies in the UK.

Shounak is a graduate of the ECPR (European Consortium of Political Science Research) Summer School in Research Methods and the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis. An Aspen Rising Leader Fellow, Shounak also has a permanent research affiliation with the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research through the SYLFF Fellowship.

Research 

• Strategic Studies

• Foreign Policy Analysis

• Nuclear Studies

• Outer Space

• India, South Asia, Indo-Pacific

Publications

• Set, S. (2017) ‘India’s Regional Diplomacy Reaches Outer Space’, Carnegie India.
• Set, S. (2015) ‘Ancient Wisdom for the Modern World: Revisiting Kautilya and his Arthashastra in the Third Millennium’, Strategic Analysis, 39(6), pp. 710–714.
• Set, S. (2015) ‘The International Relations of Outer Space: Changes, Continuities, and Contextualities’, Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 19(2), pp. 184–192.
• Set, S. and Pant, H. (2023) ‘The Himalayan Barrier: India-China Relations since Galwan’, China Review, 23(1), pp. 135–159.
• Set, S. (2019) ‘India’s Space Power: Revisiting the Anti-Satellite Test’, Carnegie India.
• Klossek, L., Set, S. and Lukaszuk, T. (2020) ‘Breaking Glass Ceiling? Mapping EU-India Security Cooperation’, available here. 
• Agarwal, V., Vekaria, Y., Agarwal, P., Mahapatra, S., Set, S., Muthiah, SB. et al. (2021) ‘Under the Spotlight: Web Tracking in Indian Partisan News Websites’, Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 15.
• Homan, Z.S., Dewey, K.F., Mirza, E.K. and Set, S. (2021) ‘Communicating Deterrence: Drivers of Misperception in India & Pakistan’, available here.
• Set, S. (2024) ‘Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defence Initiative’, The RUSI Journal, 170(7), pp. 78–79.
• Set, S. and Brar, A. (2024) ‘World Under Growing Shadow of Hypersonic Weapons Race’, TaiwanPlus News.
• Set, S. and Pant, H. (2024) ‘The Himalayan Barrier: India-China Relations since Galwan’, in China's Bilateral Relations and Order Transition in the Indo-Pacific, pp. 123–148.
• Set, S. (2024) ‘The Military Dimension of Outer Space’, DSD Research Seminar Series.
• Set, S., Brar, A. and International, N. (2024) ‘India Tests Game-Changing Weapon for Potential China War’, Newsweek International.
• DW, Godbole, T. and Set, S. (2023) ‘Was India's G20 Joint Communique a Diplomatic Success?’, DW.
• Set, S. (2023) ‘International Relations in Ancient India: Kautilya’s Arthashastra Revisited’, in Indic Perspective on International Relations, pp. 121–127.
• Pant, H.V. and Set, S. (2022) ‘Old Wine in a Broken Bottle? South Asian Perspectives on a Nuclear-Weapon Ban’, available here.
• Set, S. (2022) India’s Nuclear Transitions: Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy Change. King’s College London.
• Set, S. (2020) ‘Exploring Nuclear Transitions: In Quest of a Framework’, available here.
• Set, S. (2020) ‘The Study of Indian Foreign Policy: Emerging Trends and Arrested Directions’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 33(4), pp. 1–7.
• Set, S. (2019) ‘Betwixt and Between Transformation? India and Nuclear South Asia’, The 2019 UK PONI Papers, pp. 69–73.
• Set, S. (2019) ‘Mission Shakti: Retrospect and Prospect’, The Hindu: Business Line.
• Pant, H. and Set, S. (2019) ‘India's Leap in the Space’, Business Standard.
• Set, S. (2018) ‘Book Review: Subramaniam, Arjun: India’s Wars: A Military History, 1947–1971’, International Journal of Military History and Historiography, 38(1), p. 149.
• Set, S. (2018) ‘From Sputnik to Space X: World Politics and Outer Space Revisited’, The Asia Dialogue.
• Set, S. (2017) ‘Space Technology and Rural Development: A Political Economic Perspective’, National Conference on Revisiting Rural Development - Dynamics and Discontents.
• Set, S. (2016) ‘Book Review: UR Rao, Inside the ISRO: Narrating the Indian Space Odyssey’, India Quarterly, 72(2), pp. 200–202.
• Set, S. (2016) ‘Outer Space and Warfare: A Study of Trends and Transformations’, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
• Set, S. (2014) ‘When the Sea is the Key: An Analytical Survey of the Maritime Dimension of South Asian Security’, 21st Century South Asia, pp. 117–131.
• Set, S. (2014) ‘Impact and Implications of Information and Communication Technology in Rural India: A Critical Evaluation’, Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff): Jadavpur University.