Joshua T. White is a nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, and associate professor of the practice of South Asia studies and fellow at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asia Studies at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington. His research focuses on political and security issues in the Indian subcontinent, and explores the growing ties between South and East Asia.
He previously served at the White House as senior advisor and director for South Asian affairs at the National Security Council, where he staffed the president and national security advisor on the full range of South Asia policy issues pertaining to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent, and led efforts to integrate U.S. government policy planning across South and East Asia. While at the White House, he played an instrumental role in advancing the U.S.-India relationship, with a focus on deepened defense and security cooperation and expanded opportunities for trade and investment; sustained constructive U.S.-Pakistan ties on an array of counterterrorism, economic and regional issues; supported a sustainable security transition in Afghanistan; coordinated U.S. government plans to re-normalize ties with Sri Lanka after decades of civil war; and led a high-level government-wide effort to assess how the United States can effectively respond to the growing economic, political, and strategic linkages between South and East Asia.
Prior to joining the White House, he was a senior associate and co-director of the South Asia program at The Stimson Center and, previously, senior advisor for Asian and Pacific security affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position he held in conjunction with an international affairs fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. While at the Pentagon he supported Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in advancing the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, and advised on a broad set of defense issues related to the department’s rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.
He has spent extensive time in Asia, and has written on a wide range of issues including defense policy, electoral politics, Islamic movements, and nuclear deterrence. He has held short-term visiting research fellowships at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan’s National Defence University, and the Institute for Defence and Strategic Analyses in Delhi; testified before Congress; and served on U.S.-sponsored election observer delegations to both Pakistan and Bangladesh. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a double major in history and mathematics, and received his doctorate with distinction from Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington.
Joshua T. White is a nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, and associate professor of the practice of South Asia studies and fellow at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asia Studies at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington. His research focuses on political and security issues in the Indian subcontinent, and explores the growing ties between South and East Asia.
He previously served at the White House as senior advisor and director for South Asian affairs at the National Security Council, where he staffed the president and national security advisor on the full range of South Asia policy issues pertaining to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent, and led efforts to integrate U.S. government policy planning across South and East Asia. While at the White House, he played an instrumental role in advancing the U.S.-India relationship, with a focus on deepened defense and security cooperation and expanded opportunities for trade and investment; sustained constructive U.S.-Pakistan ties on an array of counterterrorism, economic and regional issues; supported a sustainable security transition in Afghanistan; coordinated U.S. government plans to re-normalize ties with Sri Lanka after decades of civil war; and led a high-level government-wide effort to assess how the United States can effectively respond to the growing economic, political, and strategic linkages between South and East Asia.
Prior to joining the White House, he was a senior associate and co-director of the South Asia program at The Stimson Center and, previously, senior advisor for Asian and Pacific security affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position he held in conjunction with an international affairs fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. While at the Pentagon he supported Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in advancing the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, and advised on a broad set of defense issues related to the department’s rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.
He has spent extensive time in Asia, and has written on a wide range of issues including defense policy, electoral politics, Islamic movements, and nuclear deterrence. He has held short-term visiting research fellowships at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan’s National Defence University, and the Institute for Defence and Strategic Analyses in Delhi; testified before Congress; and served on U.S.-sponsored election observer delegations to both Pakistan and Bangladesh. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a double major in history and mathematics, and received his doctorate with distinction from Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington.
It will take more than cosmetic steps by Pakistan to get the Trump administration to unfreeze security assistance [to Pakistan]. Washington is looking for serious and sustained efforts against the Haqqanis [Haqqani Network], and active measures to incentivize the Taliban to engage in peace talks. I also suspect that any resumption of security assistance would be phased, focusing first on restoring military exchanges and narrowly-targeted counterterrorism assistance programs.
If the Indian establishment is willing to move forward with politically tricky but operationally meaningful agreements [such as the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement signed by India and the United States on Thursday], I take that as a good sign.
Given the uncertainty over where the president stands and what he cares about on any given day, [this week's trip by both Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis to India] is a sign of continuity. [It signals] that we’re still willing to invest at a high level in the U.S.-India relationship.
Indian foreign policy in a changing world
[T]he weaponization of the judiciary [and] the manipulation of the media [show that the military is clearing the way for Imran Khan to become prime minister.]
With its capricious system of justice and lack of full political representation, the tribal areas [of Pakistan] had become an embarrassment to the country’s elected leadership. But in moving to reform the tribal areas, they should be commended for taking a bold and long overdue step to remedy a history of egregious disenfranchisement.
The main challenges [for China to develop a port in Pakistan], as I see them, are posed by the security risks of sustaining a large Chinese presence in Balochistan. China has demonstrated that it is highly sensitive to threats against Chinese citizens abroad, and even a small number of attacks or kidnappings could constrain the ambitions of China’s state owned enterprises operating in the area.
The title [of Donald Trump, Jr.'s speech in India, "Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation"] sure sounds like something you would hear from a diplomat. It is not illegal, but it would muddy the waters and I think make life rather difficult for those in the United States government who are being measured about how they articulate what the administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy is and will become.