Shashank Joshi

Shashank Joshi is the Washington bureau chief of The Economist. He previously served for nearly eight years as the paper’s defence editor, covering military affairs and national security. He is also a senior visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Before joining The Economist, Shashank was a Senior Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, where he currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow. His analysis has shaped public understanding of some of the defining conflicts of the 21st century, from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to the October 7th attacks and their aftermath.

Shashank was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and Harvard University, which he attended on a Kennedy Scholarship, Britain’s living memorial to President Kennedy. He also attended the Summer Workshop for the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS) at Cornell University and was a Research Associate at the Changing Character of War Programme at Oxford University. In 2024 he served as a Distinguished International Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney and Canberra.

In 2025, the French defence ministry invited Shashank to give the keynote speech on AI and war at the École Militaire during the AI Action Summit in Paris. He has also given evidence to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee and defence committee and to the House of Lords. He lectures regularly to the Higher Command and Staff Course and other courses at the UK Defence Academy. He has written books on Iran’s nuclear programme and India’s armed forces. 

At The Economist, he hosts Inside Defence, a monthly video podcast whose guests have included NATO's secretary-general, an MI6 chief and military leaders. From 2023 to 2026 he wrote the War Room, a weekly newsletter sent to more than 120,000 subscribers. He has also written or co-authored more than 30 cover stories, including special reports on military technology, the future of espionage and lessons from the war in Ukraine.

A full list of his writing is available here.