Commodore R Seshadri Vasan

Director C3S at Chennai Centre for China Studies & Head Strategy and Security Studies Center for Asia Studies

 

An alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College and the College of Naval Warfare, India, Commodore (Ret’d) Vasan has a distinguished career spanning over 34 years. His wide ranging appointments both at sea and ashore include Command of warships, appointment in carrier borne wing of INS Vikrant, command of long range Maritime Reconnaissance/ASW squadron, Founder member and examiner of the Aircrew Categorisation and Standardisation Board (AIRCATS), Chief Staff Officer (Operations) at Southern Naval Command and a Director at the Naval Aviation Staff at NHQ in charge of Aviation Planning, Ops and Training. He commissioned a major naval air station INS Rajali and commanded INS Garuda from 1996 to 1998.He was on the faculty for over two years at the prestigious Naval War College that trains senior level officers from all the three services. He was on deputation to the Indian Coast Guard from 2000 to 2003 as the Eastern Regional Commander with maritime jurisdiction in the Bay of Bengal including the Indo Bangladesh maritime border and the Indo Sri Lanka maritime boundary. He was charged with the task of C4ISR, EEZ surveillance, anti-piracy, Search and Rescue, anti-poaching and marine pollution prevention. Since his retirement he has been writing regularly for various magazines, newspapers and websites. He has been conducting workshops and delivering talks  for International delegates in many parts of the world on maritime issues, strategy, security and aviation issuesHe was selected for an International Visitor Leadership Programmeon ‘National Security and Media’ in US for three weeks in Aug-Sep 2009. He presented a paper at Chatham house in October2012 and also interacted in the British Parliament with the All Party Parliamentary group on Transatlantic and Asian Security. He was on a security panel at a Harvard University programme Taipei. He has interacted with international audience in 2013 at many places including Seoul, Kunming, Singapore,Melbourne, Kualalumpur, Johannesburg and London. In addition to being the Additional Director Projects and Development, he steered the Maritime Security Programme at the Observer Research Foundation, a major think tank in India. After three successful years in ORF, he joined the Center for Asia Studies as Head, Strategy and Security Studies in October 2008.Besides being the Director of the Asian Secretariat of the World Borderpol(WBO) and member Oceans beyond piracy(OBP),India,he was President, Navy Foundation Chennai chapter from May 2010 till July 2013..He is on the Board of Advisory Group at the Madras University and Stella Maris College; a visiting faculty at the Indian Maritime University,AMET the first private maritime university in India,HIET and the Great Lakes Institute of Management.He has taken over as the Director of the prestigious Chennai Centre for China Studies with effect from 05 September.