The Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at this University came in to being in the academic session 1957-58 for the teaching of Military Science courses at the undergraduate level. With the passage of time, enormous changes were made in the courses to keep pace with phenomenal developments in the country and abroad.
The post-graduate teaching in Defence Studies was started by the Department in1974. The Ph.D. programme was started in 1976 with a constant bearing on theinterdisciplinary nature and contents of the subject of Defence and StrategicStudies.
The Department has the uniquedistinction of maintaining a higher standard of interdisciplinary teaching andresearch and its faculty members are genuinely qualified to adapt to variouschanges in the domain, range and scope of Defence and Strategic Studies. TheDepartment has also earned an international reputation through the expertise ofits faculty members. In addition, the Department has organized national andinternational seminars in the past and its faculty members have participated invarious national and international seminars, congresses and symposia, bothwithin the country and overseas.
The Department is blessed to havemany stalwarts and some very bright names of the discipline as the facultymembers. This galaxy of scholars includes the names of Major R.C. Kulshreshtha,Major K.S. Nagar, Prof. Rajendra Prasad, Prof. R.N. Singh, Prof. Hari Saran,Prof. Rahul Mishra and Prof. A.P. Shukla and Dr Pradeep Kumar.
Presentfaculty members of the department are Prof. S.C. Pandey, Prof. Harsh KumarSinha (HoD), Prof. P.K. Yadav, Prof. V.K. Singh, Prof. S.N.M. Tripathi, Dr.Praveen Kumar Singh, Dr. Jitendra Kumar, Dr. Arti Yadav and Dr. Vijay Kumar.
DoDSSis running a P.G.Diploma programme in Disaster and National SecurityManagement. The main objective of the course is to train students in thefundamental and applied aspects of Natural Hazards and DisasterStudies. It also aims at making the students to specialize in advancedareas to understand the concept, theory, model and scientific explanation ofconsequences and mitigation process of any unfortunate incidents like disasterand calamities. The mission of the programme is to spread the in-depth awarenessamong the community and sensitizing them for disaster management which reducesthe Loss Prevention and Disaster Free India.
The faculty members are doingpioneering works by producing reading materials and reference books on Defenceand Strategic Studies and have participated in the outreach programmes onnational and international security. Faculty members have contributed aplethora of literature for the discipline and are engaged in bringing out 3journals and a research website www.isds.co.in.The department has organized 9 Refresher courses, 9 seminars and 3 short-term courses to date.
The department has always maintained close linkage withother research institutions and national and international centers/institutionsof Strategic Studies. By now it occupies the frontline position amongst the maincenters of Defence and Strategic Studies in the country. The Department ofDefence and Strategic Studies signed three Memorandum of Understandings(MoU) with Vivekanand International Foundation (VIF), New Delhi on October 16,2012, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi on February 02, 2016and with State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow onJune 14, 2021.
As part of its mission, the department iscommitted to encouraging new ways of thinking and expanding the traditional andnon-traditional contours of security analysis. It is engaged in exploring themost pressing issues of India's internal and external security dimensions andcontributes via creative and innovative thinking to national securitypolicymaking.
A major research project on 'AStudy of the Role and Impact of Media in India in the Strategic CultureConstruction' funded by UGC (Prof. Harsh Kumar Sinha.)
l A major research project on'Strategic and Economic Importance of Andman and Nicobar Island' funded by UGC(Prof. Hari Saran).
l A major research project on'Dakshin asia me nabhikiya nirastrikaran ki sambhavnayen : visleshanatamakadhyayan' funded by UGC (Prof. V. K.Singh).
l A minor research project onPakistani Nabhikiya Shastra va Bhartiya Suraksha also funded by the UGC (Dr.Pradeep Kumar Yadav.)
l A minor research project on 'India's questfor security' funded by ICSSR (Dr. Rajendra Prasad). l A minor research projecton 'Track-II Diplomacy in South Asia' funded by UGC (Dr. Harsh Kumar Sinha).
Collaborations / MoU TheDepartment of Defence and Strategic Studies has signed the following Memorandumof Understandings (MoU) with:
1. Vivekanand InternationalFoundation (VIF), New Delhi on October 16, 2012
2. Centre for Land WarfareStudies (CLAWS), New Delhi on February 02, 2016.
3. State Disaster ManagementAuthority (SDMA), Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow on June 14, 2021.
