Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri

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Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri
Born 27 August 1935 (1935-08-27) (age 72)
Flag of British India British India
Residence India England
Nationality Indian
Fields Political Science, International Relations, South Asian Studies
Institutions Institute of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
Alma mater London School of Economics
University of Calcutta
Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society

Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, FRAS (born 1935) is an internationally renowned scholar in Political Science, International Relations and South Asian Studies.

Contents

[edit] Education and Career

Rai Chowdhuri was educated at the University of Calcutta and started his academic career in Calcutta where he has taught at the University of Calcutta and founded the Department of Political Science at Rabindra Bharati University as its first professor and head. He later moved on to England where he was Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford, and Guest Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, before joining the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, where he is presently a Senior Fellow in International Relations. In 2000, the University Grants Commission, India conferred upon him the Emeritus Professorship. He was also attached to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Rai Chowdhuri is a prolific writer who has authored numerous books and is a Asian Affairs columnist at Columbia University's Project Syndicate and the Asia Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, and Asia Times Online. He has lectured widely, and his works have been published and translated into different languages in more than a hundred countries.

His outstanding scholarship in South Asian Studies was honored in 2006 with the Fellowship of the Royal Asiatic Society; UK's highest society in Asian studies.

He currently divides his time between London, UK, and Calcutta, India.

[edit] Important Works

He has been recognised in India and UK as one of the foremost scholars in South Asian history and politics. He has rendered distinguished service as an Adviser to the Indian Ministries of Defence and External Affairs and has played a role in India's defense and foreign policy making. His academic and diplomatic contributions have been acclaimed as path-finding in disarmament, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, peaceful resolution of regional and international conflicts and track two diplomacy. An avowed advocate for peace and stability in the South Asian region in particular, his writings have influenced the foreign policy making of many countries. In recognition of his expertise in strategic studies and Sino-Indian relations, he was offered an Ambassadorial assignment to the Republic of China by former Indian foreign secretary the late T. N. Kaul in 1998.

Among his books, the most notables as yet are Nuclear Politics: Towards A Safer World, and Leftism in India: 1917-1947 both published by Palgrave Macmillan in the UK. Both these books are known for the first kinds of works in the respective fields.

  • Nuclear Politics: Towards A Safer World

This book won rave review across UK and USA as an important contribution to the literature of international peace and security. Nuclear Politics: Towards a Safer World deals, on the one hand, with the destructive potential of the ‘ultimate weapons’ and, on the other, the ways of dealing with the problems these weapons might pose to international peace and security. The book helps both generalists and the specialists understand how the policies of nuclear-weapon states affect our lives. The book covers the period from the US atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to the twenty first century world and examines essential parts that both political acts and actors must play, if the objective is to eventually bring about abolition of nuclear weapons. The book will help the readers to easily comprehend contemporary factual details of ‘nuclear politics’ and to predict the probable shape of things to come in the near future.

“ The work is aimed at a broad readership - teachers and students of Political Science, International Relations, International Law, History and Diplomacy, research scholars, policy makers, potential policy makers including those who would influence the policymaking process and also the common people. Since the work is confined to no particular nation or region, readers belonging to any nation may find it interesting and thought-provoking. This a pioneering research work. Books on international relations are legion, but I am yet to come across any publication on this particular area which may be considered comparable to Professor Rai Chowdhuri’s work. - Professor Mitchell Reiss, Ambassador, United States Special Envoy to Northern Ireland; and Former Director, Policy Planning, United States Department of State. ”
  • Leftism in India: 1917-1947

Leftism in India, 1917-1947 provides a comprehensive account of the Leftist Movements in India during the most decisive phase of its struggle for freedom and describes how they interacted with the mainstream of the Indian Freedom movement under the leadership of the Indian National Congress, guided by its supreme leader Mahatma Gandhi and his ideology of non-violence. This ideology directly opposed those who believed in Marxism - Leninism and, little wonder, their policies clashed at almost every stage of the freedom movement. These clashes gave rise to the dramatic developments which are vividly described in this work. Each such development has been highlighted in its proper context, analysed with scholarly objectivity and supported by primary source materials collected not only from the Indian National Archives but also from Berlin, Paris, London, Mexico, Moscow and Tashkent.

“ Professor Rai Chowdhuri has to be congratulated on such a comprehensive coverage of not only the Communist Party history but also of Left movements in general in India. I also like Rai Chowdhuri’s interleaving of the history of the mainstream nationalist movement along with a history of the Left. There are not many books which cover the same ground and Rai Chowdhuri’s book, I am sure, will stay a standard reference work for a long time. - Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor of Economics, and Former Director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics. ”

[edit] Selected Books

  • Nuclear Politics: Towards A Safer World
  • Leftism In India 1917–1947
  • India and Nuclear Disarmament
  • Peacekeeping By The United Nations In Civil Wars
  • Games Nations Play: The Politics of Nuclear Weapons
  • The Turbulent Times: Reflections On The New World Order
  • The Strategy For Peace In A Nuclear World
  • The Strategy For Peace In Twenty First Century World
  • Toward Peace and Stability in South Asia
  • Nuclear Politics: Toward A Safer World New Edition

[edit] External links