I am a Professor of Space Security with the Schriever and West Space Scholars Program at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. I also teach space policy and international relations at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, emerging technologies (space, cyber, artificial intelligence), and unconventional warfare at the Joint Special Forces University. I am a faculty affiliate with Arizona State University's Interplanetary Initiative. I have been a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses. In 2019, I testified on China’s space program to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, whose report was submitted to the United States Congress. I am a Resource Person with the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfPC) “Emerging Security Challenges” Working Group. I am an Editorial Board Member for the NATO PfPC peer-reviewed journal “Connections.” 

My research interests include international relations theory, geopolitics, spacepower, space policy, strategic studies, peace and conflict studies, ethnic identity, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, hybrid warfare, and interdisciplinary studies. In 2020, Oxford University Press published my book, The Naga Ethnic Movement for a Separate Homeland Stories from the Field. In 2020, my co-authored book Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space was published by Lexington Press. In 2015, Routledge published my book on Indian National Security and Counter-Insurgency The Use of Force vs Non-Violent Response. 

I was awarded a Fulbright Senior Fellowship for her research on China-India border issues, an Endeavor Research Fellowship by the Australian Government to develop conflict resolution and transformation frameworks through the mechanism of dialogue with the Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University, a Henrich Bol Foundation award to study ethnic identity at Heidelberg University, and a Minerva Research Initiative Grant by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to study Great Power Competition in Space. I was invited in November 2019 to share about my life and her work on space policy at a TEDx event held at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. I am a member of the International Astronautical Federation Space Security Task Force.