Constantino Xavier

Constantino Xavier is a nonresident fellow in the India Project, and is currently a fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress. He researches on India’s foreign and security policies as a regional power, with a focus on institutions and decision-making processes, and also on relations with Europe.

He is currently writing a book on India’s crisis response and involvement in neighboring countries (Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar), and also examining the challenges of connectivity and security across the South Asian and Indian Ocean regions. Xavier’s research also focuses on how India’s democratic values and institutions influence its external engagements and its relations with other democratic powers.

Previously, he worked at the Brookings Institution, in Washington DC, as a media correspondent in South Asia, and as an adviser to the Embassy of Portugal in New Delhi during the presidency of the European Union. He held fellowships at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and the Observer Research Foundation, in New Delhi, and received research awards from the United States Fulbright program and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Xavier holds a Ph.D. in South Asian studies from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, SAIS (2016)
• M.Phil., Jawaharlal Nehru University (2008)
• M.A., Jawaharlal Nehru University (2006)
• B.A., New University of Lisbon (2003)

Representative Publications

South Asia

• 03/06/20: “Non-Traditional Security: Renewed Focus in the Post-COVID World,” Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi.
• 11/06/20: Blog Post, “Interpreting the India-Nepal border dispute,” Brookings India.
• 12/06/20: Interview, Gaurav Sawant, “India-Nepal Border Tensions,” India Today
• 27/06/20: Op-ed “भारत और नेपाल के बीच समस्या भले ही चीन ने न खड़ी की हो, लेकिन वह नेपाल को उकसा सकता है/ “Even if China has not created a problem between India and Nepal, it can provoke Nepal” Dainik Bhaskar.
• "Countering China in Nepal and the Neighbourhood" India Today Magazine, June 29, 2020.
• Constantino Xavier, ‘India's Reluctant but Democratic Approach to Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding’ in Anthea Mulakala (Ed.), Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in Asia: Lessons in South-South Cooperation, Korea Development Institute and The Asia Foundation, December 2019.
• Webinar: Emerging Trends in Nepal India Relations, NIICE Event, May 24, 2020.
• Interview: India-Nepal Ties, Global Eye, CNBC, May 22, 2020.
• Interview: India-Nepal diplomatic row and China's shadow, ETV Bharat, May 12, 2020.
• Book Review: Modi and the Reinvention of Indian Foreign Policy by Rajesh Rajagopalan, Paul Staniland, Manjari Chatterjee Miller, Constantino Xavier, and Ian Hall.
• Constantino Xavier, Aakshi Chabha, Geetika Dang “Is India still the neighbourhood’s education hub?” Brookings India. March 10, 2020.
• Constantino Xavier and Aakshi Chabha, “China is the new hub for South Asia Students” Hindustan Times. March 12, 2020.
• “Across the Himalayas: China in India’s Neighborhood” in Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations, eds by Kanti Bajpai, Selina Ho and Manjaree Chattarjee Miller, Routledge, 2020.
• "The quest for regional connectivity," Hindustan Times, February 2020.
• "Regional Connectivity and India’s BIMSTEC Policy”. National Security, Vivekananda International Foundation Vol.III (1) (2020) pp.34-51
• “Sambandh as Strategy: India’s New Approach to Regional Connectivity,” Policy Brief 012020-01, Brookings Institution India Centre, January 2020.
• "Modi's Middle Way," The ASAN Forum, August 28, 2019.
• "No illusion that Nepal will pick sides on Indo- Pak dispute," February 22, 2019.
• Book Review: Power and Democracy: India’s Foreign Policies During the Cold War by Zorawar Daulet Singh
• Interview: “Return of the Rajapaka’s” Global Eye, CNBC, November 2019.
• "How India should deal with Gotabaya's Sri Lanka," Hindustan Times, November 2019.
• Interview: "The Big Picture: Is India losing to China in the neighbourhood?" Hindustan Times, November 2019.
• "Converting Convergence into Cooperation: The United States and India in South Asia," The National Bureau of Asian Research, January 2019.
• "The New Indian Realpolitik," Foreign Affairs, December 2018.
• Book Review: “Modi’s Foreign Policy,” South Asia Economic Journal, May 2018.
• “Bridging the Bay of Bengal: Toward a Stronger BIMSTEC,” Carnegie India paper, Feb. 2018.
• “India’s “Like-Minded” Partnerships to Counter China in South Asia,” India in Transition, Center for the Advanced Study of India, Unversity of Pennsylvania, Sept. 11, 2017.
• “How Nepal and India can keep their relationship special,” The Wire, August 25, 2017.
• “Responding first as a leading power,” Ministry of External Affairs (various publishers worldwide), August 15, 2017.

Europe

• “Talking trade with the EU,” co-authored with Mohan Kumar, The Hindu, August, 2019.
• Global Governance, Security, and Strategy in the EU-India Partnership, Co-edited with Garima Mohan, Berlin: Global Public Policy Institute, April 2017.
• “Brussels and Delhi: Converging Interests in the Indian Ocean,” Policy brief co-authored with Darshana M. Baruah, Berlin: Global Public Policy Institute, March, 2017.

Migration and diaspora

• “Bringing the Diaspora Home: India’s Expatriate Evacuation Operations,” Carnegie India paper, Jan. 2017.
• Experimenting with Diasporic Incorporation: The Overseas Citizenship of India. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 2011, 17(1): 34-53.