About Varun

Varun Mohan is a political scientist specialising in the politics of global governance, institutional legitimacy, and climate security, with a particular focus on Global South contexts. He is currently an Independent Research Consultant and also working as an Assistant Professor at the School of Geopolitics and Public Policy, REVA University.

He combines concept-driven inquiry with empirical analysis of policy documents, diplomatic practice, and institutional discourse. His doctoral research examines climate security and the legitimacy of international governance institutions from a Southern perspective, contributing to debates on institutional fragmentation and the politics of knowledge production in global environmental governance.

Varun is also a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project, where he serves as Coordinator of the South-South Initiative. In early 2024 he was a Visiting Research Scholar at the School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, hosted by Professor Matt McDonald.

His research has been published in journals including Earth System Governance and the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, and he contributes regularly to policy-oriented publications including South Asian Voices (Stimson Center), The New Indian Express, and the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne. He has presented at conferences in the USA, Philippines, South Africa and was an Observer at UNFCCC COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

He teaches across political theory, international relations, global governance, and climate politics, with a strong interest in interdisciplinary pedagogy. Prior to academia, he founded Pod Learning — a skill development initiative for school students — and served as teaching faculty at iLearn IAS Academy for four years.

To read more about his publications, research activity, and academic record, please download the CV. He is available by email at varun.mohan@reva.edu.in.