Varun Mohan is a PhD Candidate at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, India, and a Senior Research Fellow with the Union Grants Commission. His research delves into the intersection of climate change, security, and global governance, with a particular focus on how the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) addresses climate security. Varun’s dissertation, “One UN, Umpteen Climate Securities: Conceptualizing and Assessing the Climate Security Discourse of the UNSC,” examines the evolving narratives of climate security and their implications for global power dynamics, with a special emphasis on the voices and concerns of Global South countries.
He has been a visiting researcher at the University of Queensland and is affiliated with the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology. With six years of teaching experience in political science and international relations, Varun remains deeply connected to his roots in Kerala, a region grappling with climate-induced floods and landslides. His research interests include climate change-related knowledge production, power dynamics, South Asia, the Indo-Pacific, and Indian climate politics. He is also actively involved in the Global South Perspectives on People-Positive Climate Action project at NIAS, further enriching his work on equitable and transformative approaches to climate governance. This multidimensional focus enables him to critically explore the interplay between regional politics, global governance, and evolving climate security narratives.