Asif Bin Ali

Asif Bin Ali

Asif Bin Ali is a Lecturer in the Department of Media, Communication and Journalism at North South University (NSU), Bangladesh, currently on study leave, and a Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Communication at Georgia State University (GSU), Atlanta, USA. His work brings together political communication, journalism, international politics, and the study of media and political power, with a particular focus on Bangladesh and South Asia.

Before beginning his doctoral studies in the United States, Asif taught at North South University and was involved in both academic and institutional leadership. Alongside his faculty responsibilities, he served in NSU's Public Relations Office, first as Deputy Director in 2023 and subsequently as Director in 2024, contributing to the university's media relations, institutional communication, and public engagement.

Asif holds an MA in Journalism, Media and Globalisation through the Erasmus Mundus programme, with his studies undertaken at Swansea University in the United Kingdom, Aarhus University, and the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark. He also holds an MA in Sociology from South Asian University, New Delhi, India. He received the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship from the European Union and earlier the SAARC-India Silver Jubilee Scholarship from the Government of India. He has completed his BA degree from Dhaka University, Bangladesh. 

Before joining North South University, Asif combined university teaching, research, and journalism. He taught at Eastern University and served as a part-time faculty member at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), and the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). He also worked as a journalist at The Daily Observer and as a Research Fellow with Dr Olav Muurlink of Central Queensland University, Australia. His early journalism involved reporting, analytical writing, conducting interviews, and engaging in conversations with academics, policymakers, and public intellectuals. His scholarly publications span media and political communication, nationalism, radicalisation, the Rohingya crisis, forced migration, and Bangladesh's political history. He is one of the editors, with Habibul Haque Khondker and Olav Muurlink, of The Emergence of Bangladesh: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, published by Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature in 2022. He also co-authored the chapter “Bangladeshi Mediascape: Political and Corporate Power,” which examines media ownership, political authority, commercial interests, and the institutional development of Bangladesh's news media.

His research on forced migration and identity politics includes “Myanmar Government's Rohingya Policies and Politics,” published in Springer Nature's Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Myanmar: Ethnic Conflict and Resolution. He also contributed “Bangladesh's ‘War on Terror’ and Madrasa Education” to the SAGE volume Radicalization in South Asia: Context, Trajectories and Implications.

Earlier, he co-edited Buddhist Nationalism, Rohingya Crisis and Contemporary Politics, an interdisciplinary volume published in 2019 that examined Buddhist nationalism, ethnic politics, and the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.

His more recent scholarship has increasingly focused on political communication and digital politics. In 2026, he co-authored the peer-reviewed article “Connectivity and Consciousness: Quantifying Digital Mobilisation in Bangladesh's 2024 Uprising,” published in World. The study examines the relationship between digital connectivity, social media use, and political mobilisation during Bangladesh's 2024 mass uprising.

Journalism, Commentary, and Public Scholarship

Alongside academic research, Asif has maintained a substantial body of public writing on Bangladesh's politics, democracy, foreign policy, political communication, media freedom, nationalism, populism, political violence, extremism, India-Bangladesh relations, regional security, and changing global power relations.

His essays, columns, and commentaries have appeared in The Daily Star, Dhaka Tribune, Prothom Alo, Daily Sabah, The Week of India, The Daily Observer, Daily Times of Bangladesh, and Counterpoint BD, among other publications. Daily Sabah lists him among its columnists.

His recent writing has addressed issues such as Bangladesh's post-2024 democratic transition, the July uprising, political violence and mob culture, terrorism and national security, media integrity, the evolution of Islamist politics, India-Bangladesh relations, Bangladesh-Türkiye relations, Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions, the Iran-US conflict, and Bangladesh's position within emerging geopolitical competition.

Prothom Alo has published both his commentaries and extended interviews. In August 2026, the newspaper published a major interview with him on the July uprising, the BNP government's foreign policy, relations with India, China and the United States, regional connectivity, and the Rohingya crisis.

International Media Interviews and Commentary

Asif is also regularly approached by international media for analysis of Bangladesh's domestic politics and South Asian geopolitics.

Indian current-affairs magazine The Week and The Print have repeatedly interviewed and quoted him on Bangladesh's political transition, the future of Jamaat-e-Islami, Tarique Rahman's political trajectory, the role of the military, India-Bangladesh relations, West Bengal politics, political nationalism, and the post-2024 regional order. The publication has also carried his own commentary. He has also given extended interviews to The Week's television and digital platforms, including discussions with its Delhi bureau on Bangladesh's political instability, elections, rising anti-India sentiment, and relations between Dhaka and New Delhi.

Asif has appeared on India Today, including its flagship current-affairs programmes, including programmes hosted by senior Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai. He has also appeared on Pakistan TV Global, discussing Bangladesh's election environment as well as the Iran-US conflict, diplomacy, regional security, and Pakistan's potential diplomatic role in periods of Middle Eastern crisis.

His analysis has additionally been sought by Nikkei Asia on Sheikh Hasina's political activities from India, her stated plans regarding Bangladesh, and the implications for Bangladesh-India relations.

Bangladeshi newspapers and news organisations have also regularly approached him for expert commentary. These include The Business Standard, Prothom Alo, The Daily Star and Samakal, among others.

Television, Talk Shows, and Long-form Interviews

Asif is a regular participant in television talk shows, podcasts, and long-form political discussions in Bangladesh.

He has appeared repeatedly on Channel i's Tritiyo Matra, one of Bangladesh's longest-running political talk shows. He has also appeared in political discussions and interviews on Star News, addressing parliamentary politics, democratic institutions, political accountability, national identity, and the post-uprising political order.

In 2026, Dhaka Stream featured him in an extended Stream Talk interview examining Bangladesh's political history, the tendency of governing parties toward concentration of power, democratic institutions, and political change after the July uprising.

He has appeared in multiple long-form conversations with the POST, Dhaka Papers, Asia Post, Alap, Ekattor Television, The Business Standard, and other television, digital, and podcast platforms, where he has discussed domestic politics, foreign policy, nationalism, political communication, and regional geopolitical developments.

Documentary and Public Sociology

Asif has also worked across academic and audiovisual forms. He directed the documentary The Concert for Bangladesh: Music to Introduce Bangladesh to the World, released in 2022. The documentary explores the historic 1971 Concert for Bangladesh organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar through the lenses of cultural activism, humanitarian diplomacy, and the internationalisation of Bangladesh's struggle for independence. The Business Standard reported on both the documentary and its public launch.

He has additionally been associated with Global Dialogue, the international public sociology publication of the International Sociological Association, including its Bengali editorial initiative. His involvement reflects his longer-standing interest in connecting academic research with journalism and wider public debate.

Research Interests

His current research interests include political and strategic communication, international political communication, digital political mobilisation, media and democracy, nationalism and identity politics, political extremism and radicalisation, South Asian politics and geopolitics, Bangladesh's foreign policy, and the communication dimensions of international power competition.

Across his work as a university teacher, researcher, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and public commentator, his broader concern is with the relationship between communication, political power, democratic institutions, and social change, particularly in Bangladesh and the wider South Asian context.