Nishank Motwani

Dr. Nishank Motwani is an Edward B. Mason Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. He graduated from Harvard Kennedy School with a Master’s in Public Administration and was awarded a PhD in strategic and security studies from the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales. Nishank works on strategic competition, transnational threats, nuclear strategy, irregular warfare, technology, and the political economy of governance and development. He previously held senior executive organizational and advisory roles in Kabul, where he worked on security, countering violent extremism, and political affairs. During his time in Afghanistan, he also served as an independent election observer and covered two presidential and one parliamentary election between 2014 and 2020. Following the collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021, he testified before the Australian Senate, where he examined the dynamics of the terrorism threat flowing from the Taliban’s return to power.