Meet Paul Kapur, the Indian-American now in charge of US diplomacy in South Asia

Indian-American author and security expert Paul Kapur has sworn-in as the new Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US Department of State. His appointment was announced late Wednesday night by the Bureau on X.

"Welcome to @State_SCA, Assistant Secretary Paul Kapur! This morning Dr. Kapur was officially sworn in as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs," the Department said in its post.

As Assistant Secretary, Kapur will oversee America's diplomatic engagement and strategic partnerships across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He succeeds Donald Lu, who held the position since 2021.

Born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother, Kapur has built an extensive career at the intersection of academia, security studies, and policymaking. Before his appointment, he served as a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School and as a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

From 2020 to 2021, Kapur worked on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, focusing on issues related to South and Central Asia, the Indo-Pacific strategy, and US-India relations. His prior experience also includes years of teaching and research on international security and nuclear deterrence.

An accomplished author, Kapur has written extensively on South Asian geopolitics, nuclear proliferation, deterrence dynamics, and Islamist militancy. His book, Jihad as Grand Strategy: Islamist Militancy, National Security, and the Pakistani State, argued that Pakistan's use of jihad was "not a result of the country's instability, but it was an intentional government strategy."

Kapur earned his Bachelor's degree from Amherst College and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. 

Known for his analytical work on the South Asian security environment, Kapur's appointment is seen as significant at a time when Washington is recalibrating its regional strategy amid changing power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific and heightened tensions between India and China.