Vivek has recently submitted his PhD in International Relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He was a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War & Peace, School of International Public Affairs, Columbia University in the City of New York for the academic year 2015-2016. His broad research discipline is international Relations and his areas of research concern probing the American role in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific and Asia-Pacific regions, including the role of the U.S. in security in South Asia and Indo-U.S. defense relations, and the Indian defence sector.