Lt. Gen. V. K. Nayar was commissioned in the Army in 1951; he is a M.Sc. in Defence Studies from the Madras University.
Lt. Gen. Nayar participated in the Sino-Indian War, the Indo-Pak Wars and Counter Insurgency Operations in Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. He served as Additional Director General of Military Operation before taking over a corps in Punjab. He was the GOC-in-C Western Command (1987-1989).
He was the Governor of Manipur and Nagaland and was also a member of Government of India's Task Force on Internal Security. Apart from problems of law and order, he has handled politico-social problems of the States of North East, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab.
He is the author of books, Threat from Within (1992) and Low Intensity Conflicts in India (2000). Presently, he is with the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and a trustee of the Centre for North-East Studies and Policy Research.