Ayesha Alam Malik is the Founder and Director of the War Law Institute (WLI). She has nearly a decade of experience in legal research, policy, and teaching, with a focus on armed conflict, international law, and security from a Global South perspective.
Prior to founding WLI, Ayesha served as Deputy Director of Pakistan’s largest legal think tank, where she led a centre focused on the law of armed conflict, foreign policy, and international relations. In this role, she managed and led projects in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She also represented the organisation at the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts meetings on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems in 2023.
Ayesha has been deeply committed to advancing women’s participation in international law and security. She founded a mentoring programme for young female lawyers pursuing careers in international law and spearheaded a Women in Security workshop that brought together women from across the security sector.
She is Adjunct Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), where she has taught undergraduate courses on war law, international criminal law, refugee law, and public international law. She has also delivered workshops and lectures at other institutions, including Kinnaird College for Women, and at government-led conferences.
Ayesha is a regular public commentator on international law and conflict. She writes opinion pieces for Dawn, Pakistan’s most widely read English-language newspaper, and previously hosted a podcast for Dawn News English in collaboration with the ICRC titled Legally Speaking with Ayesha Malik. Her writing has also appeared in Opinio Juris, Pak Politico, and PIDE, and she has a forthcoming book chapter on State Responsibility in International Law in Principles of International Law – Insights and Reflections from Pakistan, to be published by Ethics Press.
In recognition of her leadership and scholarship, Ayesha was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship for Women’s Leadership in 2024. She also held a Teaching Fellowship at Sciences Po’s Paris School of International Affairs in October 2023, where she taught National Security in South Asia, and was an Ecological Security Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks’ Climate and Security Center (2023–24), focusing on ecological insecurity in situations of occupation.
Ayesha studied law at Oxford University (Trinity College) and holds a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory and a Master’s degree in International Law from University College London. Her previous professional experience includes work with security-focused policy think tanks in London and Kabul, as well as in the development sector in Pakistan and South Sudan.