During the early 1990s, he pursued post-doctoral research on ‘Polar Regions in International Relations’ at the University of Cambridge, England, with a Nehru Centenary British Commonwealth Fellowship. This was followed by the award of Leverhulme Research Grant at the University of Cambridge, where he was employed as a Research Associate to work on the research project, ‘The Future of the Antarctic Treaty System and its Relevance for the Arctic’, at Scott Polar Research Institute, from 1993 to 1995. A major output of his research stint at Cambridge, which also involved lecturing to M.Phil. in Polar Studies, was The Polar Regions: A Political Geography(Chichester: John Wiley, 1996), which remains widely cited.

Currently, he is the President of the Indian Ocean Research Group (IORG), an Observer in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Chief Editor of its flagship journal, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region (Routledge). He serves/has served on editorial boards of several journals including Geopolitics (Routledge); Political Geography(Elsevier), Cooperation and Conflict (Sage), Journal of Borderland Studies (Routledge), Strategic Analysis(Routledge), The Polar Journal (Routledge, as a Regional Editor)  India Quarterly: A Journal of InternationalAffairs (Sage), Indian Foreign Affairs Journal: A Quarterly of the Association of Indian Diplomats (Prints Publication),  Journal of Global Faultlines (Pluto) and Journal of Land Ports and Border Economy (Sage).

He has authored two, co-authored three and co-edited eight books under the imprint of Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Routledge, John Wiley and Sage. Elected as the co-chair of the Research Committee on Political and Cultural Geography (RC 15) of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) for two terms (2006-2009; 2009-2012), he also served on the Steering Committee of the IGU Commission on Political Geography from 2004 to 2012. He has served as a member of the Indian delegation to several Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCMs): 44^th ATCM (Berlin, 2022); 43^rd ATCM (Paris, 2021); 38^th ATCM (Sofia, 2015); 34^th ATCM (Buenos Aires); 33^rd ATCM (Punta-de-Este); 32^nd ATCM (Baltimore); 31^st ATCM (Kiev); and 30^th ATCM (New Delhi, 2007). 

He has visited 51 countries in connection with various academic assignments. He is the recipient of several visiting professorships and fellowships abroad including Curtin University, Australia; University of Wurzburg, Germany under ‘A New Passage to India’ of DAAD; India-China Institute, The New School, USA; The University of Adelaide, Australia; University of Durham, UK; and ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. He also speaks/has spoken at the National Defense College, New Delhi; Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service, New Delhi; George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies, Germany; National Defense College, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat; and Theresa Military Academy, Wiener Neustadt, Austria. He also speaks/has spoken at the National Defense College, New Delhi; Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service, New Delhi; George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies, Germany; National Defense College, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat; and Theresa Military Academy, Wiener Neustadt, Austria. He was the Lead Author for Chapter 10: (Asia) of the Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2019-2021). Panjab University Alumni Association, on the occasion of the 4th  Global Alumni Meet, held on 23 December 2023, bestowed upon him the 'Distinguished Alumnus Award'.