South Asian security expert S. Paul Kapur has been nominated by former President Donald Trump as the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. This role oversees U.S. diplomatic relations with India and the region. If confirmed, Kapur will succeed Donald Lu and become the second Indian-American to hold this position, following Nisha Desai Biswal, who served during the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017.
Kapur serves as a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, focusing on South Asian politics, regional security, and international affairs. He has previously worked with the State Department’s policy planning staff, focusing on South and Central Asia, the Indo-Pacific strategy, and U.S.-India relations. Additionally, he is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and has held teaching positions at Claremont McKenna College and Stanford University.
An advocate of strong U.S.-India ties and a critic of Pakistan, Kapur has authored and co-edited multiple books on South Asian politics, with his work appearing in leading academic journals. He also directs U.S.-India Track 1.5 strategic dialogues for the Department of Defense. Kapur earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Amherst College.
