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Karl F. Inderfurth  

Senior Adviser and Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies

Ambassador Inderfurth has extensive knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing U.S.-India relations, as well as a deep understanding of the larger region. He served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 1997 to 2001. In that capacity, he had responsibility for India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. Prior to serving as an assistant secretary of state, Ambassador Inderfurth was the U.S. representative for special political affairs to the United Nations. He was also a deputy U.S. representative to the UN Security Council. Following his public service in the U.S. government, which earlier included time on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the National Security Council at the White House, Ambassador Inderfurth joined George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs as John O. Rankin Professor of the Practice of International Affairs. He also served as director of the International Affairs M.A. Program.

In 1981, Ambassador Inderfurth joined ABC News, with a focus covering the Departments of State and Defense and arms control. He won several honors for his reporting on the nation’s security concerns, including an Emmy Award and an Alfred I. DuPont–Columbia University Award. He was Moscow correspondent for ABC News from 1989 to 1991, during which he broadcast more than 400 reports from 12 of the then 15 Soviet republics. Mr. Inderfurth attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his B.A. in political science. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and earned his M.A. from Princeton University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Fulbright Association. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Asia Foundation. Along with Loch K. Johnson, he is editor of Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council (Oxford University Press, 2004).

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