Sunil Bastian is a political economist and author. His current research interests are politics of state formation and the development of capitalism in Sri Lanka. He has published widely and is the author of several books, including “Sustaining a State in Conflict: Politics of Foreign Aid in Sri Lanka (2007)”, and “Power and Politics in the Shadow of Sri Lanka’s Armed Conflict (2010)”. He has co-edited publications including “Assessing Participation, A Discussion from South Asia (1996)” and “Can Democracy be Designed? The Politics of Institutional Choice in Societies Affected by Conflict (2003)” with Robin Luckham. Mr. Bastian has also served as the chairperson of the Centre for Poverty Analysis and as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo.