Sharad Joshi

Headshot of Sharad JoshiFellow ⋅ Associate Professor


[email protected]
Monterey, CA
831.647.6508

Sharad Joshi teaches courses in and researches topics related to terrorism and nuclear issues in South Asia and Southeast Asia. He first came to the Middlebury Institute as a postdoctoral fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in 2006 and joined the full-time faculty at the Graduate School of International Policy and Management in 2011. His wide-ranging interests in international relations were sparked in middle and high school in India during the tumultuous years when the Cold War came to a close. He studied economics as an undergraduate and then discovered an MA program in international relations, which was the most obvious path given his burgeoning interest in the field throughout the first half of the 1990s. After his MA (and a short detour as a journalist), he moved to a PhD program in the United States focusing on terrorism and nuclear issues as part of his dissertation. At the Middlebury Institute, he also served as a research associate and interim director of the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program. Currently, he is affiliated as an associate fellow for international security at the Chatham House think-tank in the United Kingdom.

Areas of Interest

Sharad Joshi’s research interests focus on several issues pertaining to terrorism, and nuclear weapons, especially in South Asia. This includes decision-making and strategies on the part of these groups, including terrorist financing, CBRN terrorism, and rivalry and cooperation amongst terrorist groups. His research on nuclear weapons in South Asia includes examining the nuclear rivalry in the subcontinent and issues related to security of nuclear weapons in Pakistan.

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D. in International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
  • M.A. in Politics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
  • B.A. (Honors) in Economics, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur


Select Publications

Pakistan: Overcoming Strategic Constraints,” in Air Forces: The Next Generation, edited by Amit Gupta, (Howgate Publishing, 2020) (Book chapter).

How terrorist actors in Pakistan use nuclear weapons for political influence,” Asian Security, 2019, (Journal article).

Sub-State Actors’ Threats to International Security: Religious Extremists and Terrorist Groups,” in Understanding New Security Threats in a Globalized World, edited by Michel Gueldry, Gigi Gokcek, Lui Hebron (New York: Routledge, 2019) (Book chapter).

The Transnational Security Threat from D-Company,” (co-authored with Phil Williams and Gretchen Peters) in Lawrence Cline & Paul Shemella, eds., The Future of Counterinsurgency (Praeger, 2015), (Book Chapter).

The China-Pakistan Nuclear Deal: A Realpolitique Fait Accompli,” Issue Brief, Nuclear Threat Initiative, December 11, 2011.

Playing Politics: How the Regional Context Impedes Confronting Myanmar’s Alleged Nuclear Program,” Issue Brief, Nuclear Threat Initiative, February 4, 2011.

Cooperative Threat Reduction and Pakistan,” (co-authored with Togzhan Kassenova) Issue Brief, Nuclear Threat Initiative, August 4, 2008.