Dr. Mayilvaganan M

Dr. Mayilvaganan Muthumariappan is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Human Security and International Affairs (CHSIA). His academic and research interests span international relations, geopolitics, foreign policy, security studies, maritime security, space security, climate change, migration, and public health.

Professional Biography

Dr. M. Mayilvaganan as per Indian records, also known as Mayilvaganan Muthumariappan in international records, is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Human Security and International Affairs (CHSIA). He is an international affairs and Human Security specialist with over two decades of experience in multidisciplinary research, project management, grant writing, training, mentorship, and teaching. His regional expertise encompasses Asia, the Indo-Pacific, the United States, and China.

His areas of specialization include geopolitical and foreign policy analysis, maritime security and ocean politics, borderland studies, and non-traditional security challenges. He has authored extensively on Asia and the Indo-Pacific and has led externally funded, policy-oriented research projects. He also provides consultancy, writing, and speaking services to diverse organizations and audiences.

Current Academic & Professional Appointments

Dr. Mayil currently serves as a Geopolitical and Human Security Consultant at Communitology in Burlington, Vermont, USA; Visiting Professor of International Relations and Public Policy at MIT World Peace University, Pune, India; and a member of the Advisory Board of the AURORA Mentorship Program at American University, Washington, D.C., USA. He is also a BOBP Fellow at the Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP), an intergovernmental initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, headquartered in Chennai, India.

Previous Academic & Research Positions

Previously, Dr. Mayil served as an Associate Professor in the International Strategic & Security Studies Programme (ISSSP), School of Conflict and Security Studies (SCSS), at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, India. There, he led research on South and Southeast Asia, the Indo-Pacific, major-power foreign policy, borderland studies, and non-traditional security.

He also served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, where he taught South Asian International Relations, Modern Warfare, and International Politics. Earlier in his career, he was an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, focusing on Sri Lanka, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi, specializing in Kashmir. He has also undertaken research in Canada.

Teaching, Mentorship & Supervision

Dr. Mayil has mentored 100+ graduate students, research interns, and early-career researchers across multidisciplinary research projects and has supervised PhD candidates and a postdoctoral fellow.

Professional Service & Community Engagement

Beyond his academic and policy engagements, Dr. Mayil is dedicated to mentoring emerging scholars and supporting professional development. He guides students and early-career researchers in thesis development, academic writing, and research communication, while also advising on career pathways.

As a Mentor at Mind Matters Chicago, he also contributes to community engagement and has delivered sessions for college students in India on soft skills, communication, and career readiness.

Research Interests & Regional Expertise

His broader research interests encompass global geopolitics, strategic, security and foreign policy analysis, maritime affairs, space, and emerging security challenges, including migration, climate change, public health, violence and extremism, resource scarcity, food and water security, and natural disasters. He is also interested in conflict and peacebuilding, borderland studies, and the evolving political, strategic, and security dynamics of the Middle East, South, Southeast and East Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific.

Education & Professional Qualifications

He holds a PhD from the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Rights, International Humanitarian and Refugee Laws from the Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi, and certificates in Grant Writing Suite from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois Chicago, both in the United States.