Assistant Secretary
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

October 22, 2025 – Present

S. Paul Kapur was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs on October 22, 2025. He is on leave from the United States Naval Postgraduate School, where he was a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs. Previously, Kapur was a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and taught at Claremont McKenna College. Kapur is author of Jihad as Grand Strategy: Islamist Militancy, National Security, and the Pakistani State (Oxford University Press); Dangerous Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Conflict in South Asia (Stanford University Press); co-author of India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia (Columbia University Press); and co-editor of The Challenges of Nuclear Security: U.S. and Indian Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). His work has also appeared in leading academic journals, in popular news outlets, and in a wide variety of edited volumes. Kapur has directed an annual United States-India Track 1.5 strategic dialogue, as well as other U.S.-India engagements, for the Department of Defense. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and his B.A. from Amherst College.

Reference: State Department Biography of S. Paul Kapur