Esha Banerji is presently serving as a 2023 EU-India Young Leaders Exchange Fellow, actively working on promoting and enhancing EU-India security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. She is also associated with a premier think‐tank in India, specialising in defence, security and strategic studies. Her work focuses on the East Asia region with special emphasis on the current and emerging security challenges in the region. Her research interest and focuses of analysis are defence strategy, geo‐economics, foreign affairs, and the implications of Chinese security developments on the region, especially India. She holds a Masters in Political Science and International Relations, with a specialization in Defense and National Security. Her Postgraduate thesis explores India’s signing of Military Logistics Agreements and its impact on Asia’s security environment.
Esha has previously been part of the 2023 DCAF’s Young Faces Initiative, where she focuses on cybersecurity and the 2023 UK PONI Introduction to Nuclear Policy Workshop conducted by Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). She has been published at reputed news media portals and her research papers have been published in international peer reviewed journals. She has presented in several International Conferences, including the Belgrade Security Conference, where she focused on security‐development nexus. She has been awarded the best delegate at the 2020 International MUN and was ranked 3rd in the All‐India Essay Writing Competition on Indo‐Pacific conducted by the US Embassy. Her native languages are Bangla and Hindi and she is fluent in English. She is also a beginner in Mandarin.