Dr Arvind Gupta is the Director of the Vivekananda 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).