Dhruva Jaishankar is Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America), a public policy think tank in Washington DC, which he helped establish in 2020. In this capacity, he has also served as Vice President - Americas at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) since 2025 and is an ex officio member of ORF America's Board of Directors. He is the author of Vishwa Shastra: India and the World (Penguin India, 2024), an introduction to India's international relations, and writes regularly for the Hindustan Times newspaper in India.

Mr. Jaishankar was previously a Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings India in New Delhi and the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. Prior to that, he was a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund (GMF) in Washington DC. From 2009 to 2012, he was program officer with the Asia Program at GMF. Before that, he worked as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution in Washington and as a news writer and reporter for CNN-IBN television in New Delhi. 

In 2015-2016, Jaishankar was a Visiting Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has also been a Non-Resident Fellow with the Lowy Institute in Australia, a David Rockefeller Fellow with the Trilateral Commission, an IISS-SAIS Merrill Center Young Strategist, and a Brent Scowcroft Award Fellow with the Aspen Strategy Group. He holds a B.A. in history and classics from Macalester College, and an M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University.  

His commentary has appeared in Indian and international publications, including in print in Foreign Affairs, The Globe & Mail, The Hindu, Indian Express, India Today, Politico, The Straits Times, and The Times of India and online for The Atlantic, BBC World, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, The New York Times, Project Syndicate, War on the Rocks, and The Washington Post. He has also been featured in reports by Bloomberg, CNN International, The Economist, The Financial Times, National Public Radio, Time, and The Wall Street Journal.

Books

• Vishwa Shastra: India and the World (Gurugram: Penguin Random House India, 2024) 

Edited Volume

• Rebalancing Globalization: Perspectives from the Global South (Washington DC: Observer Research Foundation America, 2024). (Co-edited with Anit Mukherjee)

Book Chapters

• "India’s Indo-Pacific Reorientation," in Harsh V Pant and Premesha Saha, eds., India, South Korea and the ASEAN: Middle Power Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific (Abingdon: Routledge, 2025).
• "India and the US: The Diaspora, Democracy, and Diplomacy Trifecta," in Harsh V Pant and Vivek Lall, eds., India-U.S. Relations in the Modi Era: Aligned but Autonomous (New Delhi: Har Anand Publications, 2024).
• "India, the Quad, and the Liberal International Order," in Yuichi Hosoya and Hans Kundnani, eds., The Transformation of the Liberal International Order: Evolutions and Limitations (New York: Springer, 2023).
• "India's Foreign Policy Realignments," in Aparna Pande ed., Routledge Handbook on South Asian Foreign Policy (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021).
• "Law and Power: Enforcing UNCLOS in the Indo-Pacific," in Alok Bansal, Deeksha Goel, and Siddharth Singh eds., UNCLOS: Solutions for Managing the Maritime Global Commons (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2021)
• “Look East to Act East,” in Dhruv C. Katoch ed., India’s Foreign Policy: Towards Resurgence (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2019)
• "Maritime Connectivity and Security in the Indo-Pacific," in Lalit Mansingh, Anup K. Mudgal, and Udai Bhanu Singh eds., Purbasa East meets East - Synergising the North-East and Eastern India with the Indo-Pacific (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2019).
• "India as an Asian Power," in Vinod Rai and Amitendu Palit eds., Seven Decades of Independent India: Ideas and Reflections (Gurgaon: Penguin India, 2018)
• "A Confluence of Two Strategies: The Japan–India Security Partnership in the Indo-Pacific," in Rajesh Basrur and Sumitha Narayanan Kutty eds., India and Japan: Assessing the Strategic Partnership (Singapore: Palgrave Pivot, 2018).
• “India and Germany: Realizing Strategic Convergence,” in Gurjit Singh, ed., Opportunity Beckons: Adding Momentum to the Indo-German Partnership (New Delhi: Rupa, 2017)
• "Indian Strategy in a Non-Strategic Age," in Atul K Thakur ed., India Now And in Transition, (New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2017)
• “Europe in Indian Strategy,” in Krishnappa Vekatshamy and Princy George, Grand Strategy for India: 2020 and Beyond (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2012)
• "Chronicle of a Deal Foretold: Washington's Perspective on Negotiating the Indo-U.S. Nuclear Agreement," in P.R. Chari ed., Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal: Seeking Synergy in Bilateralism (New Delhi: Routledge, 2009).

Reports/Papers 

• "India's Tech Strategy: An Introductory Overview," Background Paper No. 23, Observer Research Foundation America, May 2024 (with Tisyaketu Sirkar)
• "Precision Targets: Accelerating the U.S.-India Defense Industrial Partnership," Background Paper No. 12, Observer Research Foundation America, February 2023 (with Gopal Nadadur)
• "Democracy in Indian Foreign Policy," Special Report No. 1, Observer Research Foundation America, September 2022 (with Ammar Nainar)
• "The Australia-India Strategic Partnership: Accelerating Security Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific," Analysis, Lowy Institute, 17 September 2020. 
• "Acting East: India in the Indo-Pacific," Impact Series, Brookings India, October 2019. 
• "The Indigenisation of India's Defence Industry," Impact Series, Brookings India, August 2019.
• "Survey of India's Strategic Community," Impact Series, Brookings India, March 2019.
• "India and the United States in the Trump Era: Re-evaluating Bilateral and Global Relations," Policy Paper No. 37, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution, June 2017.
• "Internet Freedom 2.1," The German Marshall Fund of the United States, 2015.

Reports Edited

• "FourSight: A Taskforce on China's Strategic Future," ORF America and ASPI DC, 2024
• "India 2024: Policy Priorities for a New Government," Brookings India, 2019
• "India-U.S. Relations in Transition," Brookings India, 2016
• "A Transatlantic Pakistan Policy," German Marshall Fund of the United States, 2014
• "China and India: New Actors in the Southern Atlantic," German Marshall Fund of the United States, 2012.  

Journal and Magazine Articles

• "Response: What Kind of Great Power Will India Be?" Foreign Affairs, September/October 2025
• "The Destroyer," Contingent, July 21, 2023
• "The New India Policy," Seminar, No. 715, 2019
• "Resilience and the Future Balance of Power," Survival, Vol. 56, Issue 3, 2014.

Report Contributions 

• "Transatlantic Rifts: An Indian Perspective," in The State of the Transatlantic Alliance, Special Report No. 277, Observer Research Foundation, September 2025. 
• "Germany and the Indo-Pacific," in Germany's Role in a Changing International Order, The German Marshall Fund and Alfred Landecker Foundation, February 2025.
• "India and Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific." Taiwan and India: Strategizing the Relations, TAEF Research Series 006, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, February 2022.
• "Exploring India's Economic Diplomacy with the U.S." A 2030 Vision for India’s Economic Diplomacy, GP-ORF Series, Global Policy & Observer Research Foundation, 2021. 
• "Perspectives on a Changing World Order," Discussion Paper Series on Managing Global Disorder No. 1, Council on Foreign Relations, June 2020.
• "Deepening Democracy through Diversity: Improving Coordination with India and Non-Western Democracies," Democracy and Disorder Series, Brookings Institution, 2019
• "India Rising: Soft Power and the World's Largest Democracy," in Soft Power 30, 2018
• "The United States and India: Forging an Indispensible Democratic Partnership," Center for American Progress, 2018
• "Survey on America's Role in the Indo-Pacific," Perth U.S.-Asia Centre, 2017
• "Uneasy Triangle: India's Evolving Relations with the United States and China," in Realising the Indo-Pacific: Tasks for India's Regional Integration, Perth U.S.-Asia Centre, 2017
• "Indian Ocean Region: A Pivot for India's Growth," Indian Ocean Conference, 2016 
• "India's Military Diplomacy," in Defence Primer: India at 75, Observer Research Foundation, 2016
• "India & South Korea: The Promise of Partnership," Korea Economic Institute, 2012