Commodore R. Seshadri Vasan (Retd.)

An Alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College, the Naval War College and the International Visitor Leadership Programme USA, Commodore Seshadri Vasan has a distinguished service of over 34 years in the Navy and the Coast Guard. His appointments include command of warships, two major air stations and a maritime air squadron. He has participated both in the 1971 war and IPKF operations. He was an instructor at the Naval War College, India. Prior to retirement, he was the Regional Commander of the Indian Coast Guard Region East overseeing EEZ Patrol, SAR, Anti-Piracy, Fisheries protection, Maritime Border Control, Marine Pollution prevention and other maritime tasks in the Bay of Bengal. Post retirement he has served in many think tanks and is a regular speaker at many International and national conferences. He was also the Chairman of Aeronautical Society of India, Chennai Charter, President of the Navy Foundation Chennai Chapter and the Director of the Asian Bureau of the World Border Police. He has many publications to his credit in journals, websites, edited books and media. The think thanks that he has served include the Observer Research Foundation where he steered the Maritime Security Programme ( now redesignated as the Maritime Policy Initiative) and The Center for Asia Studies where he was the Head, Strategy and Security Studies. He is presently the Director General of the Chennai Centre of China Studies and the Regional Director of the National Maritime Foundation Tamil Nadu. He has been a visiting faculty at the Indian Maritime University, Academy of Maritime Education and Training, Great Lakes Institute of Management and Hindustan Institute of Engineering Technology. He is also on the Board of Advisors at the Madras University, the Stella Maris College and the Puducherry University. His areas of study include the Indo Pacific, neighborhood policies, maritime security, stability, counter terrorism and maritime dynamics in the IOR, China, blue economy and ocean governance.