Monalisa Hazarika

Monalisa is a Graduate Professional with UNIDIR’s Conventional Arms and Ammunition Programme. Her areas of expertise and research focus include small arms and light weapons, especially non-industrial weapons and their trends in illicit manufacture and trade, transnational organised crime, narco-insurgency, and the nexus between emerging technologies and conventional weapons with regard to 3D printing.

Monalisa holds an MA in Conflict Management and Development from the Banaras Hindu University, India. Her thesis focused on the spillover effects of the 2021 coup in Myanmar on Northeast India’s organised crime syndicates and India’s foreign policy with reference to the Act East Policy while analysing the security implications of the new Great Game East. 

Before joining UNIDIR, Monalisa worked as a Knowledge Exchange and Impact Consultant at the SCRAP Weapons Project of SOAS University London and was previously associated with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Forum on the Arms Trade, and the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) in varying capacities. Monalisa is one of the 15 UN Youth Champions for Disarmament under the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and was formerly part of the #Leaders4Tomorrow and Leaders2theFuture programs. She has recently written on the insidious impact of weapons diversion and weak physical security and stockpile management in the Manipur conflict and on the emerging threats associated with 3D-printed firearms.

Monalisa speaks English, Assamese and Hindi.