Indian-origin Paul Kapur to be key US diplomat for South Asia

Indian-origin Paul Kapur, an expert on South Asian security, has been nominated by US President Donald Trump to be the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, reports say.

Kapur, if confirmed by the US Senate, will replace Donald Lu, India’s The Hindu said on Thursday.

In January, the US State Department confirmed the departure of Lu, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, as he ran his term on Jan 17, 2025.

The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs deals with US foreign policy and US relations with the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, according to the report.

Kapur is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval Postgraduate School.

He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

According to the biography provided by the Naval School, Kapur served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, working on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and US-India relations from 2020-2021.

Previously, he 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, Dangerous Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Conflict in South Asia; co-author of India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia and The Challenges of Nuclear Security: US and Indian Perspectives.

He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his BA from Amherst College.