Dr. Premesha Saha joined Asia Society Australia in December 2024 as a Maitri Fellow funded by the Centre for Australia-India Relations. She is working on a project titled, ‘Ensuring ASEAN Centrality in the Indo-Pacific: A Case for Bolstering India-Australia Cooperation in Southeast Asia’. Her research focusses on India’s Indo-Pacific policy, India’s Act East policy, India’s engagements in Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania, Maritime security issues in Southeast Asia and maritime security in the Indian Ocean, Indonesia’s Maritime policy and strategy, and Indonesia’s foreign policy.

Premesha is a Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation’s (ORF) Strategic Studies Programme in New Delhi. She was also awarded the Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Partnership Fellowship for the fiscal year 2023-24. Previously she has been an Associate Fellow at the National Maritime Foundation; Indo-Pacific Security Studies (FIPPS) Fellow sponsored by the US State Department at Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies (DKI APCSS), Honululu, Hawaii; Visiting Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), the Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Jakarta, Lemabaga Ilmu Pengetahuan (LIPI) Jakarta (now renamed as Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN); and Darmasiswa Scholar sponsored by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture at Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya, Jakarta.

Premesha has completed her PhD from the Centre of Indo-Pacific Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her PhD thesis is titled, ‘Indonesia’s Maritime strategy in the Indian Ocean.’ She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals like Maritime Affairs, The Indonesia Quarterly, The Defence Security Brief, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, The Washington Quarterly and newspapers and magazines like The Jakarta Post, The Hindu, The Foreign Policy, Australian Financial Review, The Economic Times, The Hindustan Times, Firstpost. She has also published chapters in edited books published by Pentagon Press, Harper Collins, Springer among others. Her co-edited volume on ‘India, South Korea and the ASEAN: Middle Power Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific’ has recently been published in September 2024 by Routledge UK.