Will head the National Security division at CAP.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Vikram Singh, a high-ranking official within the Pentagon’s South and Southeast Asia division, is leaving his job with the US government to join a think tank.
Singh will be heading up the National Security department at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a public policy research organization that also does advocacy work and is based in Washington, DC. The CAP is famously liberal, and its current president and Chief Executive Officer is fellow Indian American Neera Tanden.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Tanden lauded Singh and his addition the CAP:
“We’re thrilled to have Vikram Singh lead our national security and international policy team,” Tanden said. “Vikram is a leading foreign policy thinker of his generation and has tackled the country’s greatest foreign policy challenges during his time at the State Department and the Pentagon. As we continue to shape a pragmatic foreign policy strategy over the next decade, Vikram’s insights, sharp strategic mind, and experience will guide our work.”
Singh is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia, a position to which he was appointed in April of 2012. Before that, he was the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy on Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and prior to that he was the Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Department of State.
He was with the Defense Department from 2003 to 2007, where he oversaw defense policies, training programs, and disaster and humanitarian responses. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He has worked in Sri Lanka as well, running a program for the Ford Foundation, with which he investigated and advocated for minority rights during the Sri Lankan Civil War
Singh is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University in New York City.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com