Senior Professor Nayani Melegoda is the former Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo, where she is currently senior advisor on RCSS Projects.
She obtained her PhD from the University of Leeds, UK. She has a Master’s from the University of British Columbia, Canada, an Advanced Diploma in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden, and several certificates of training from ICRC, India, on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) at Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad and VM Salgoaar College of Law of Goa University, India. She is the recipient of the Senior Fulbright –Hays Fellowship, Fulbright Summer Fellowship, Department of State, USA short-term training for Women Administrator in Management at the University of Nebraska Omaha, USA, Japan Foundation Fellowship and India – Sri Lanka Foundation Award. Professor in International Relations at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, where she held the position of the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies from 2016 – 2022 and Head of the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Arts from 2010 to 2016. She is the Country Expert for Sri Lanka in the Varieties of Democracies Project of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and a Research Affiliate of the Institute of Peace Science ((IPSHU) University of Hiroshima, Japan. She is the University Coordinator and resource person for the National Defence College, Sri Lanka.