Washington: Indian-American security expert Paul Kapur officially assumed office as assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs on Wednesday. The Bureau confirmed the appointment on X (formerly Twitter), “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.”
He succeeds Donald Lu, who served from September 2021 to January 2025.
Kapur will oversee US diplomacy, strategic partnerships and regional engagement across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. His responsibilities include security, economic cooperation, counterterrorism and infrastructure development.
The 52-year-old Kapur was born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother. He reflected on his roots during his Senate confirmation hearing in June.
“I can’t avoid the feeling of having come full circle. I was born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother. Although I visited India often during my childhood, I grew up in the United States as a thoroughly American kid, never imagining that my career would someday return me to the place where I was born,” he said.
Kapur served from 2020 to 2021 on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, focussing on South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy and India-US relations. He led the India-US Track 1.5 dialogue and other strategic defense engagements. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
He is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is also a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Kapur has authored multiple books on South Asia and the Indo-Pacific. His works cover nuclear proliferation, Islamist militancy, deterrence and regional security. In ‘Jihad as Grand Strategy: Islamist Militancy, National Security and the Pakistani State’, he argued that Pakistan’s use of jihad is a deliberate government strategy rather than a product of instability.
On Pakistan, he said he would “pursue security cooperation where beneficial to US interests”.
During his confirmation hearing, Kapur outlined his approach to India-US relations. “The United States and India share a host of common interests: ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region, which is not dominated by China; expanding bilateral trade, building our economic relationship so that it is more symmetrical and profitable; facilitating technology sharing and innovation; and ensuring access to the energy necessary to fuel our economies,” he said.
In early October, Kapur was confirmed by the Senate along with Sergio Gor, the new US ambassador to India.
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