January 10, 2021
2 mins read

Indian Americans fill Biden national security team

US President-elect Joe Biden, continuing to fill out top posts to align with a diverse country’s shifting demographics, on Friday appointed to his national security council “incredibly accomplished” Indian Americans who will serve under National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Tarun Chhabra, a first-generation American and a graduate of Stanford University, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School, will serve as Senior Director for Technology and National Security. Sumona Guha, a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University, has been appointed as Senior Director for South Asia and former journalist Shanthi Kalathil will be Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights.

The Biden-Harris transition team sent out brief profiles of the new appointees. Below are excerpts on the three latest Indian American choices.

Tarun Chhabra is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University. He was previously a Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House.

During the Obama-Biden administration, Chhabra served on the National Security Council staff as Director for Strategic Planning and Director for Human Rights and National Security Issues, and at the Pentagon as a speechwriter to the Secretary of Defence.
Sumona Guha was co-chair of the South Asia foreign policy working group on the Biden-Harris campaign, and serves on the transition’s State Department Agency Review Team. Guha is Senior Vice President at Albright Stonebridge Group.

Previously, she served in the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer and later, on the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff where she focused on South Asia. During the Obama-Biden administration, she was Special Advisor for national security affairs to Vice President Biden.

Shanthi Kalathil is currently senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, where her work focuses on emerging challenges to democracy.

Previously in her career, she served as a senior democracy fellow at the US Agency for International Development, an associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Hong Kong-based reporter for the Asian Wall Street Journal, and an advisor to international affairs organisations.

Kalathil is the co-author of Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule. Originally from California, Kalathil is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Also Read-US charges 3 Sri Lankans in 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks

Previous Story

PM panel to oversee Bose’s birth anniversary celebrations

Next Story

Sabrina Singh named White House Deputy Press Secy

Latest from -Top News

UAE-India pact fuels future biz leaders

MoU between ADSM and UIBC-UC to foster entrepreneurship, mentorship, and collaborative research between UAE and India through 2028 In a landmark partnership aimed at cultivating the next generation of global business leaders,

‘1,563 Indians deported from US so far’

Though the ministry did not specify the reasons behind the deportations, the figure reflects a sharp uptick in removals under the Trump administration’s renewed focus on immigration enforcement…reports Asian Lite News More

Why TRF’s Terror Tag Matters

This wasn’t just counterterror—it was a signal. India fused intel, precision strikes, and tech for a swift, strategic blow. TRF wasn’t just named—it was hit….writes John Spencer  Today, July 17, 2025, the

Jaishankar Hails TRF Terror Tag

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, made the official announcement on Thursday…reports Asian Lite News Reacting to the US designating The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a
Go toTop