Dr Arvind Gupta is the Director of the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi. He was the Deputy National Security Adviser and Secretary, National Security Council, Government of India during 2014-17. Earlier, he was Director-General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi during 2012-2014 and a former career diplomat, he has served in the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian missions abroad.
He speaks regularly at the various Indian universities, military, para-military, police, and diplomatic academies on foreign policy and national security issues. He has guided research students at premier educational institutions. He is a member of the Board of Studies of the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University and has honorary academic positions at Punjab University and Andhra University.
Author of five books, his last book Opportunity for India in a Changing World was published by KW publishers Pvt Ltd in 2021. His book How India Manages Its National Security was published by Penguin in 2018. In 2020, Sage India published a coedited (with Anil Wadhwa) volume titled India's Foreign Policy: Surviving in a Turbulent World. He also co-edited with Arpita Mitra, a volume titled Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: The Relevance of India's Ancient Thinking to Contemporary Strategic Reality, (Aryan book International, New Delhi).

Contributions 
Tensions in Russia-Japan Relations The Russia-Ukraine war has cast a deep shadow over Russia-Japan relations. The immediate prospects for improvement look bleak. Japan imposed sanctions on Russia a day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Russia reacted by inc...

Review of the 21st Valdai Discussion Club Meeting In a wide ranging four hour long open and frank interaction with the participants of the Valdai Discussion Club (VDC) meeting held in Sochi on 07 Nov 2024, Putin touched upon a variety of issues ranging from the rise of new multilateralism, the prosp...

The Changing Nature of Warfare: Lessons for India The Russia-Ukraine war and the war in Gaza provide several pointers to how the nature of warfare is changing. Indian strategic thinkers need to carefully study these wars and imbibe the lessons. Indian armed forces are in the process of being reorgan...

Think tanks should conduct deep studies of global trends to enhance the national capacity for surviving Black Swan events “Nuclear governance is now facing massive challenges. In the last few years, we have seen that all the arm controls agreements have become dysfunctional. There is rampant nuclear proliferation. For practical purposes, there is hardly any nuclear go...

Global Situation and Challenges Ahead in 2024 While it is difficult to predict the future, one can be reasonably sure that the forces of change unleashed in the last few years will continue to intensify and create unexpected situations. Black swan events are becoming increasingly common. In 2022...

Book Published / Book Reviews 
Exploring India's Soft Power Assets: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Revisited The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) has nurtured deliberations on the concept of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and its strategic relevance for the world today since 2019. The concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam was the culmination point in a cultur...

Opportunities for India in a Changing World We are living in an era of extraordinarily fast paced change. The Covid-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down and deepened political, economic and social uncertainties. The post-World War order set up in 1945 by the Western countries is under ...

AATMANIRBHAR BHARAT: A Vibrant and Strong India Neither development without self-pride nor self-pride without development are desirable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat or a self-reliant India on 12 May 2020 goes beyond mere economic self-reliance. ...

India’s Foreign Policy: Surviving in a Turbulent World Written by foreign policy experts, academics and practioners, this book develops the frameworks and strategies for India’s foreign policy that can be adopted to meet the emerging challenges and non-traditional threats in the new world order. It stu...

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - Relevance of India’s Ancient Thinking to Contemporary Strategic Reality The adoption of 21st June as International Day of Yoga by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, in response to an India-led resolution with a record high number of co-sponsors, was a landmark event. In this backdrop, it is all the more importa...

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