S. Paul Kapur

S. Paul Kapur is an American scholar and professor. He was nominated by the Second Trump administration to serve as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.

S. Paul Kapur
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs (nominated)
Preceded by	Donald Lu
Personal details
Alma mater	B. A. (Amherst College) PhD (University of Chicago)

Education

Kapur earned his Bachelor's degree from Amherst College, and did his PhD at the University of Chicago.^[1][2]

Career

Kapur is, as of 2025, a professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School. He is a visiting faculty member at the Hoover Institution. He has taught at Claremont McKenna College, and was also a visiting professor at Stanford University.^[1][2]

In 2025, he was nominated as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs by the Second Trump administration, succeeding Donald Lu.^[3]

Views

Kapur, in his book Jihad as Grand Strategy, argued that jihad was a major part of Pakistan's grand strategy, and not just one of the political instruments it used. He claimed that the utilization of jihad by Pakistan was not a result of the country's instability, and instead said it was an intentional government strategy.^[3]

Works

• Dangerous Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Conflict in South Asia. Stanford University Press. 2007. ISBN 9780804755504.
• With Sumit Ganguly: Ganguly, Šumit; Kapur, S. Paul (2010). India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231512824. JSTOR 10.7312/gang14374.
• Jihad as Grand Strategy: Islamist Militancy, National Security, and the Pakistani State. Oxford University Press. 2016. ISBN 9780190611835.
• Co-edited with Diana Wueger and Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan: The Challenges of Nuclear Security: U. S. and Indian Perspectives. Initiatives in Strategic Studies: Issues and Policies. Palgrave Macmillan. 2024. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-56814-5. ISBN 978-3-031-56814-5.