Esha Banerji is a Research Assistant at the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi. She holds a Master's degree in Political Science and International Relations with a specialization in Defence and National Security from Savitribai Phule Pune University. She is a recipient of Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (HES) by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan and has previously served as an EU-India Young Leaders Exchange Fellow, organised by the European Union in the context of the EU Policy and Outreach Partnership (EUPOP) in India. She has attended and presented papers at several national and international conferences including the Belgrade Security Conference (2022), Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations (2023) and the Closing the Gap: Emerging and Disruptive Digital Technologies: Regional Perspectives Conference (2023). She has been awarded the best delegate at the 2020 International MUN and was ranked 3rd in the All‐India Essay Writing Competition on Indo‐Pacific conducted by the US Embassy. She has been part of the 2023 DCAF Young Faces Initiative and the 2023 UK PONI Introduction to Nuclear Policy Workshop at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Her core areas of research are in international security, with a specific emphasis on Chinese security developments and their impact on the region. She is fluent in English, Hindi, and Bengali, and has limited working proficiency in Mandarin.