About

kashmir houseboat

South Asian Voices (SAV) is an online policy platform for strategic analysis on South Asia. Hosted by the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., SAV seeks to encourage experienced and emerging policy analysts and academics from the region to engage in critical inquiry and free-flowing debate on South Asia’s security, political, and economic affairs.

SAV provides greater visibility and deepened debate across borders to a rising generation of strategic thinkers on the subcontinent. Contributors put forth innovative analysis, challenge misperceptions, and engage in respectful, thoughtful commentary to enhance understanding of the region. The SAV editorial team, headed by Managing Editor Sophia Kierstead, Deputy Editor Mahika Khosla, and overseen by Editor-at-Large Akriti Vasudeva, engages contributors in a thorough, collaborative review process to ensure their voices are heard by scholars and policymakers in Islamabad, New Delhi, Washington, and beyond. The views and opinions expressed on SAV are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Stimson Center or its supporters.

SAV does not offer financial compensation to authors. However, it does work to promote visibility of their work throughout South Asia and the United States. High quality submissions will be prominently featured on the site, engaged with by leading experts, promoted through social media, discussed in SAV podcasts, and cross-published in other leading online platforms or magazines.

A small number of Visiting Fellowships are also offered annually to outstanding analysts with a demonstrated interest in and capacity for conducting research on South Asian security issues. SAV Visiting Fellows are hosted for two months at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. to develop a research project, meet with leading scholars and policy makers, and publish articles in different venues.

Visiting Fellowship

SAV contributors and readers are also encouraged to enroll in Stimson’s Open Online Courses, the inaugural Strategic South Asia and Strategic Learning: Deterrence in Southern Asia. Each course seeks to provide an interactive and dynamic space where strategic analysts in India, Pakistan, and elsewhere can study and debate nuclear stability and nuclear dangers on the subcontinent.

Strategic Learning Intiative

What people say about us

“I have been reading South Asian Voices since the inception of the Journal. The articles are extremely well written. The Journal provides incisive analysis on contemporary South Asian issues. The website should be high on the reading list of analysts interested in South Asia.”

Brig. Gurmeet Kanwal, Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi


“At last–a place on the net for reasoned debate about critical South Asian strategic issues. The ‘next generation’ is well-represented; this is one way to find out what future South Asian policy makers and influentials are thinking about.”

Prof. Stephen P. Cohen, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies and the India Initiative, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.


“SAV platform is a unique forum that brings together young South Asian analysts  for an exchange of ideas on issues facing the region. It is  a great vehicle for forging an epistemic community of young scholars with innovative and unconventional ways of thinking about matters germane to security and strategic issues in South Asia.”

Dr. Rifaat Hussain, Professor and Head, Department of Government Policy and Public Administration, National University of Sciences and Technology, Lahore

Image: Basharat Shah, Flickr