| Dr. Adil Rasheed joined MP-IDSA as Research Fellow in August 2016. Before that, he was researcher and political commentator in various international think tanks and media organizations for over 17 years, both in the United Arab Emirates and India. He was Senior Research Fellow at the United Services Institution of India (USI) for two years from 2014 to 2016, where he still holds the honorary title of Distinguished Fellow. He was Researcher at the UAE’s premier think tank The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) for eight years (2006-14), where, in addition to research and publishing several papers and articles, he interviewed many distinguished international leaders such as former US Secretary of State Leon Panetta, former Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Mahathir Mohamed, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the first Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC in Iraq Hans Blix, former NATO Chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, etc.
Dr. Rasheed is the author of the book ISIS: Race to Armageddon (2015), which explored the so-called Islamic State’s origins, ideology, vision, mission, organization, administration, military strengths and weaknesses, warfare, global outreach, recruitment and the international response to the challenge it poses. The book also covered the implications for India’s security as regards the growing malicious influence of this jihadist group. The first book on the subject from India, it has been a huge draw internationally and is currently available on Amazon and Kindle. Dr. Rashid has also co-edited the book Indian Ocean Region: Emerging Strategic Cooperation, Competition and Conflict Scenarios. Published by the USI in 2015, this book focuses on growing India-China competition in the quest for strategic control of the world’s third largest ocean, emerging scenarios and recommendations for India’s maritime policies. Research Fellow |
Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Adil Rasheed’s chapter 'Arab Spring and the French Revolution: The Longue Durée of Transformation' has been published in the book 'Arab Spring and its Legacies', edited by Sujata Ashwarya and Mujib Alam and published by Knowledge World, 2023 (ISBN : 9789394915282)
The chapter posits that it may be too early to write off the soc-alled Arab Spring upheavals as the French Revolution itself took nearly a hundred years to produce a democratic government in France after the Fall of Bastille in 1789. In fact, there was a period of Reign of Terror by the Jacobin leader Robespierre, Napoleonic wars and then the counter-revolution coup of the monarchical order in the Congress of Vienna of 1815. Similar upheavals have been witnessed following the Arab Spring upheavals, with initial strengthening of totalitarian regimes, rise of terrorist groups like ISIS and yet the gradual introduction of political and socio-economic reforms by many Arab governments to placate their restive populations.
