Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) — Hoover Visiting Fellow S. Paul Kapur is the new assistant US secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, the State Department said.
Kapur brings to the role a combination of policy experience, regional expertise, and academic leadership focused on the strategic dynamics of South and Central Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific.
He is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Kapur served from 2020 to 2021on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, where he worked on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and US-India relations. He directs a US-India Track 1.5 strategic dialogue, as well as other regional engagements, for the Department of War (Defense).
An accomplished scholar and educator, Kapur previously taught at Claremont McKenna College and was a visiting professor at Stanford University. He is the author of Jihad as Grand Strategy: Islamist Militancy, National Security, and the Pakistani State (Oxford University Press) and Dangerous Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Conflict in South Asia (Stanford University Press). He has coauthored and coedited a number of other volumes.
Kapur’s research and commentary have appeared in leading academic journals—including International Security, Security Studies, Asian Survey, and Washington Quarterly—as well as in prominent news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, the National Interest, and RealClearPolicy. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his BA from Amherst College.
“It is an honor to lead the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs,” Kapur said. “I am grateful to President Trump for this opportunity. I look forward to working with the Bureau’s dedicated men and women to advance US interests in this critical part of the world. Together we will make America, and the region, safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
For more information, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, jmarsch@stanford.edu.
