Academic Bio
I'm Nikhil Kalyanpur, an Assistant Professor at the International Relations Department of the London School of Economics. I research topics at the intersection of business-government relations and economic statecraft. More specifically, I focus on the use of domestic institutional tools to achieve geo-strategic ends.
I received a PhD in Government from Georgetown University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance for the 2020-2021 academic year. Before graduate school, I studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Brown University and worked as a Research Associate at Harvard Business School.
My book, Legal Weapons of the Wealthy, examines why plutocrats from the same emerging market sue each other in foreign courts with a focus on the Russian oligarch battles in London. It is forthcoming with Cornell University Press and is based on my project that won APSA's Edwin S. Corwin Award for the Best Dissertation in Public Law.
I spend a disproportionate amount of my time reading and thinking about Manchester United, often bemoaning the frailty of our frontline.
Writing Bio
I'm also a political drama writer focused on stories about the super-wealthy. My screenwriting frequently draws on the insights from my research and the broader academic work on oligarchs. Although part of my motivation is to help share those insights in an engaging and entertaining way, I mostly write because I’m still reckoning with growing up in Dubai as it morphed from a literal desert into a capitalist oasis.
I am currently working on two pilots related to past and current academic projects.
- Indebted
- Meena Sarkar, an immigrant woman who conquered the misogynistic finance industry, has her millions set on controlling the metal that will power the green transition: lithium. But after she clashes with foreign governments and environmental activists, Meena's family threatens to reveal the corruption that first made her a mogul.
- Oligarchy
- Max Rabin, aspiring oligarch, is at war with fellow businessmen, organized crime, and even his own government. To find meaning and safety in the chaos of 1990s Russia, Max hatches a scheme to steal billions of dollars from the Russian state. But the plan risks turning his homeland into a dictator’s wet-dream.
I'm always looking to meet other writers, particularly to help work through complicated/political storylines. Please get in touch!