Ayesha Siddiqa is an independent scholar, writer, and journalist with a focus on Islamic and South Asian politics and military affairs. She is known for her daring essays on topics that others fear to address. She is renowned for her groundbreaking work on military decision-making, the political economy of defence in Pakistan, and the theory of military business internationally. In 2008, she was honoured with an award for her book by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS).
Early Life and Education
Ayesha Siddiqa was born in Lahore on April 7, 1966. She attended Kinnaird College and later joined the Pakistan Civil Services. After quitting the civil services she moved to London She received her PhD in war studies from King’s College, London.
Civil Servant Career
Ayesha Siddiqa served as the Director of Pakistan Navy’s naval research as a civil servant, which makes her the first civilian and the first woman to hold that position in Pakistan’s defence sector. She has also held positions as Deputy director of Defence Services Audit and in military accounts.
Teaching Career
After she left the civil services, Ayesha worked as a senior research fellow at Sandia National Laboratories. Ayesha has travelled extensively lecturing at universities all over the world and speaking at seminars and conferences. She has held teaching positions at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and the University of Pennsylvania.
She held the following positions: Ford Fellow at the Bonn International Centre for Conversion; Charles Wallace Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University; Research Fellow at the Cooperative Monitoring Centre, Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico; and the Inaugural Pakistan Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars (WWICS).
She is presently employed as a research associate at the University of London’s School for Oriental and African Studies’ South Asia Institute.
Writing Career
After leaving the civil services, she wrote, Pakistan’s Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99: In Search of a Policy in 2001, and her critically acclaimed book, Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, in 2007.
She also writes critical columns for newspapers such as Dawn, Daily Times, The Friday Times, and Express Tribune on a regular basis.