Saira Basit

Saira Basit is Dean at the Norwegian Defence University College.

Research fellow at IFS since November 2007. Adviser, Asia in Norwegian security policy, Section for Security Policy and North America, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2010. Visiting scholar at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) in New Delhi, November–December 2008. Masters Scholar at IFS, January–June 2007.

Member of the Wikistrat community of experts since 2019. Member of editorial committee, Babylon (a journal on Middle Eastern issues, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages), 2008–2011.

PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo. Title of dissertation (2019): Transnational militancy and conflictual interstate orders in Asia: Cooperation in the midst of conflict in Iran-Pakistan, China-Pakistan and India-Myanmar relations. Master of Arts in Persian, Asian and African Studies, University of Oslo. International project term through the University of Oslo in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Tehran, August– December 2006.

Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oslo with major studies of interest in Persian and Middle Eastern Studies, minor in Swahili and Urdu. Supplemental studies in Arabic obtained from the University of Oslo and in Baluchi language and area studies from Uppsala University.