Jaideep Saikia is a security analyst with over two dozen published and presented academic papers on security and strategy and the author of the book, Contours: Essays on Security and Strategy which received excellent reviews in the media. He has also published a collection of his poems, Lyrics from the Amygdala and is co-editor of the book, Development Challenges in India: Assam in the 21st Century. The present book, grew out of his research as an ACDIS-Ford fellow in the Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Born in 1966, Jaideep Saikia had his education at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehra Dun and at St Stephen's College, University of Delhi. He has travelled widely in USA, Europe and in South and South East Asia on academic assignments. He travelled to Pakistan as the guest of President Gen Zia-ul-Haq in 1988. Earlier, he travelled to Kashmir and studied the security situation on a fellowship from the National Foundation for India, New Delhi and to Sri Lanka on a Regional Centre for Strategic Studies fellowship. He visited the People's Republic of China where he lectured and interacted with the top think tanks and universities of Beijing, Fudan and Zhejiang. He was also an "International Visitor" to USA to study "International Crime Issues & Global Cooperation" on the invitation of the US Department of State. Saikia was part of an international expert group for a mandated agency of the United Nations in its project "Devious Objectives and Spoilers in Peace Processes." He examined the thesis with an eye to Kashmir.

Jaideep Saikia lives in Guwahati and is presently working on a book on the ULFA.