Mr. Shafqat Munir is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS). His key research interests are Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, Cybersecurity, Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean and other regional security issues. At the institute Mr. Munir is responsible for Bangladesh Centre for Terrorism Research (BCTR) He also coordinates several track 1.5 and track 2 dialogues as well as all overseas collaboration of BIPSS. In addition to his role at BIPSS, Mr Munir is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) and was until recently NonResident Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (ISAS, NUS). Mr. Munir graduated from the Australian National University (ANU) with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Security Studies. He subsequently completed a Master of Science in Strategic Studies and a post graduate diploma in Counter Terrorism Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he was a RSIS scholar. His MSc. dissertation looked at a comprehensive Counter Terrorism strategy for Bangladesh. He has subsequently attended executive education programmes at the John F Kennedy School of Government (HKS) at Harvard University on ‘Counter Terrorism and Global Security’ and ‘Leadership in the 21st Century’. He is an alumnus of the Near East and South Asia Center at the National Defense University in Washington DC, Institut des Haute Etdues de Defense Nationale (IHEDN) in Paris and the Centro Superior Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (CESEDEN) in Spain where he attended the Higher Defence Course for Asia Pacific Senior Officers. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Humphrey Leadership Award fellowship by the US Department of State.