Shaping Policy Discourse: An Intern's Contribution to Strategic Research in Transitional Bangladesh

Abstract

This report analyses a six-month internship at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies from 9 March to 8 September 2025, comprising an initial three-month phase and a senior internship following contract renewal. BIISS, ranked 36th among Global Top Defence and National Security Think Tanks (McGann, 2024), serves as Bangladesh's premier statutory research institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During approximately 840 working hours across 105 working days (excluding public holidays including Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, Independence Day, and Bengali New Year), key achievements included: leading rapporteuring teams for the BIISS-NDC Discussion with 97 National Defence Course officers (24 June 2025) and the UNODC-BIISS Police Reform Dialogue (25-26 June 2025); chairing the seminar on the July Uprising anniversary (21 August 2025); coordinating the BIISS- UNOPS Roundtable on SDG localisation (6 September 2025); and completing original research on Japan-Bangladesh relations examining maritime defence cooperation, human capital exchange, and blue economy collaboration. The report demonstrates how intern contributions may feed into institutional outputs that potentially inform governmental decision-making, while maintaining caution about direct causal claims. Limitations include the observational nature of policy impact assessments and the preliminary scope of the Japan-Bangladesh research. Recommendations: (1) BIISS should enhance private sector engagement in research programmes; (2) the institute's library, housing over 10,000 volumes (BIISS, 2024), could serve as a national resource through expanded access infrastructure.