Maimuna Ashraf is a PhD candidate at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University. Her thesis explores the interplay of overlapping strategic dyads and national positions towards arms control in Southern Asia. She has been working in the field of strategic studies since 2015 and was previously associated with the Strategic Vision Institute and the Centre for International Strategic Studies in Islamabad as Senior Research Associate and Research Officer. Her research interests include South Asian nuclear issues, primarily India and Pakistani nuclear and missile capabilities, conventional and nuclear military doctrines and force postures, and regional arms control and disarmament perspectives.

Ms. Ashraf was a South Asian Voices Visiting Fellow with the Henry L. Stimson Centre, Washington D.C. in 2018, and has occasionally contributed to the Stimson Centre’s Strategic Learning Initiative. She has delivered presentations at international conferences/workshops including the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI-USA), the European Union Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium (EUNPD) Next Generation Workshop in Brussels, and a Track-2 workshop organised by the Atlantic Council.

She has also participated in various courses/trainings including the 57th International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO) Italy and the “Disarmament and Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction” training program organised by the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Netherlands. She holds an M.Phil. in International Relations from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Her research has been published in  CISS Insight, Journal of Contemporary Studies, The National Interest, and with the Stimson Center.