Jaganath Sankaran

Jaganath Sankaran is an assistant professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. He works on problems at the intersection of international security and science & technology.   

Dr. Sankaran spent the first four years of his career as a defense scientist with the Indian Missile R&D establishment. Dr. Sankaran’s work in weapons design and development led to his interests in missile defenses, space weapons, nuclear weapons, military net assessment, and arms control. 

The current focus of his research is the growing strategic and military competition between the major powers. In particular, Dr. Sankaran studies the impact of emerging technological advances on weapons systems deployed by these states. Dr. Sankaran has recently written on the military capabilities of China and the counter-military balancing undertaken by the United States, Japan, India, and other states. He has also written about the U.S.-Russian disagreements over missile defenses and nuclear arms control.