Ayesha Siddiqa is a London-based South Asia specialist and expert in military security, civil-military relations, political economy of defence, military procurement and militancy and extremism.
She is a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College, London, with which she is currently associated as a senior fellow at the Department of War Studies. Previously, she was a research associate at the South Asia Institute and the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.
Dr Siddiqa is the author of two books on Pakistan’s military, has published 15 book chapters and over 300 articles in academic journals, and encyclopaedias. While having worked in the past as a correspondent for the renowned Jane’s Defence Weekly, she has contributed over 2,000 opinion pieces in leading international and South Asian news outlets including The New York Times, Al-Jazeera, OpenDemocracy, Le Monde Diplomatique, ThePrint, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Dawn, Kafila, The News, Dawn, Tehelka, Himal, Outlook India, Dawn, The Friday Times and Newsline. She has also contributed reports on South Asia for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (APSI) Counter-terrorism yearbook for 2018 and 2019.
Dr Siddiqa has taught at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania. She has the distinction of being a Charles Wallace fellow at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, fellow at the Bonn International Centre, and fellow at the Cooperative Monitoring Centre, Sandia National Laboratories, USA.
She has also served as a civil servant in Pakistan for 11 years, including a two-year stint as the Director of Naval Research at the Naval Headquarters, Islamabad. Her civil service career also includes a year with the primary anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau in Pakistan.
Books
- Pakistan’s Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99. In Search of a Policy (Palgrave Press, UK, 2001)
- Military Inc, Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy (Pluto Press, UK 2007 & 2017, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2007 & Penguin Press, India 2018)
Reports
- “South Asia’s Corporate Sector: Surviving Military Corporatization & Political Greed.” (Case studies of Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka). In Carnegie Endowment Report 2024
- “Sri Lanka’s Military: From Ceremonial to Professional.” In The Oxford Encyclopaedia on Military and Politics, April 2022 (Editor(s): William R. Thompson and Hicham Bou Nassif)
- “Old Wine in an Old Bottle” Pakistan and the US-China Competition.” In A New Cold War: Henry Kissinger and the Rise of China (Harper Collins India), August 2021
- “The New Frontiers: Militancy & Radicalism in Punjab.” For Strategic Analysis, Norway. (2014)
- “Tea Leaves for Tanks: Impact of Trade on Peace and Stability between Pakistan and Its Neighbors – Afghanistan, India & Iran.” Strategic Analysis, Oslo. Report No. 28, December 2014.
- Drivers of Extremism in Southern Punjab, Traders, Youth and Women Findings and Analysis. (Phase 2). For USAID, 2014
- Drivers of Extremism in Southern Punjab. Findings and Analysis. For USAID, November 2013
- “The Evolution of Civil-Military Relations in South Asia”. (Comparative study of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka). In Sridharan, E. D. (ed), International Relations Theory and South Asia. (Oxford University Press 2011)
- Red Hot Chilli Peppers Islam: Is the Youth in Elite Universities in Pakistan Radical?” Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2010.
- Pakistan-Iran-Afghanistan Relations: Looking Beyond the Troubled Triangle. Middle East Program Occasional Paper series, (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), Spring 2005.
Journal Articles
- From Hybrid Democracy to Hybrid Martial Law. In Critical Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
- Imran Khan and the Generals. In Diplomat, 2021
- Review essay “Peace in Afghanistan.” In International Affairs, (Chatham House, London, 2019)
- Pakistan—From Hybrid-Democracy to Hybrid-Martial Law. In Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 42, Number 2, Winter 2019. (Villanova University)
- Chronicle of a Death Foretold – Militarizing the Nation by Zeinab Abul-Magd (On military in business in Egyptian military). In Development and Change, 2018
- Pakistan’s Modernity: Between the Military and Militancy. In Economic and Political Weekly, 2011
- Pakistan’s Counterterrorism Strategy: Separating Friends from Enemies. In Washington Quarterly, 2011.
- Jihadism in Pakistan: The Expanding Frontier. In Journal of International Affairs, 2009. (Columbia University).
- Military’s Economic Role and Beyond. In RUSI Journal, 2007
- Is Missile Non-Proliferation A Possibility in South Asia? South Asian Survey, Vol. 11(2), pages 231-242, September 2004