Kaushik Roy is Guru Nanak Chair Professor in the Department of History at Jadavpur University, India and Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway. He has been attached to PRIO in various capacities for nearly a decade. He has previously held teaching positions at Visva Bharati University, India, and at Presidency College, India. He received his PhD from the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and was also a Junior Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He has received the Charles Wallace Fellowship and research grants from institutions including the Indian National Science Academy and the UGC. He is a member of the editorial board of Oxford Bibliographies (dealing with military history) and a member of the Indian National Science Academy's Research Council. Roy specializes in the military history of the modern period. He has worked extensively on both conventional and unconventional wars during the pre-modern, early modern and present eras.

He has published multiple books and chapters in edited volumes released by publishers including Routledge, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. He has also published articles in various peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Global History , the Journal of Military Ethics , the Journal of Military History , War in History, First World War Studies , Modern Asian Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in History , and the Indian Economic and Social History Review .