Dr. Nishank Motwani is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Council on International Law, Order, and Security. At the Council, his work focuses on the changing dynamics of deterrence, nuclear strategy, and the intersection of emerging technologies and national security focusing on the Indo-Pacific.

Dr. Motwani is Vice President of Technology, Industry and Strategy at Levenhall in Washington, D.C. At the strategic level, he works across AUKUS, the Quad, Pacific Island Countries, and key trilaterals such as the U.S.-Australia-Japan relationship. He helps defence and technology leaders enter new markets and navigate through friction points in alliance frameworks, defence industrial policy, and geopolitical risk to enhance decision making. He also provides evidence-based analysis to policymakers and practitioners on security threats, defense priorities, and adversarial behaviors.

He is a Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and a Visiting Fellow at the Defense Technology Foundation in Tokyo. He was recently a Non-Resident Fellow at the Middle East Institute and an Edward S. Mason Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Motwani previously led positions of high impact in Afghanistan and the Middle East. These included Director of Policy and Research at ATR Consulting and Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, both in Kabul. In these positions he actively contributed to policy matters relating to capacity building for national defence forces, counternarcotics, tackling violent extremism, elections issues, and enhancing regional cooperation.

He has published widely in outlets globally: The Diplomat, The Strategist, War on the Rocks, The Nikkei, The Interpreter, Foreign Policy, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, The National Interest, East Asia Forum, The Middle East Institute, and The Royal Australian Air Force. His analysis has appeared in The Washington Post, BBC, CNN, South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, Nikkei, Fox News, Agence France-Presse, Asia Times, and several others.

Dr. Motwani's sole authored book, Players, Perceptions, and Power in Long Wars, is forthcoming in 2027.

Dr. Motwani holds a PhD in Strategic and Security Studies from the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales; a Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was an Edward S. Mason Fellow and a Ramsay Centre Scholar; a Master of Diplomatic Studies and a Master of Strategic Studies from The Australian National University; and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Northeastern University.