Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress announced that Vikram J. Singh will be joining CAP as the new Vice President for National Security and International Policy. Singh is currently the deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia.
In his new capacity at CAP, Singh will oversee CAP’s work on national security around the globe, while continuing his focus on Asia.
“We’re thrilled to have Vikram Singh lead our national security and international policy team,” said Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress. “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.”
Rudy deLeon, who currently runs CAP’s National Security and International Policy team, will continue to work with the Center for American Progress as a Senior Fellow.
“I’m grateful for the tremendous leadership that Rudy has given CAP’s national security and international policy team for more than six years,” said Tanden. “Rudy’s guidance on CAP policies, including ending combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the defense budget, intelligence reform, and shifting our attention to rising powers throughout the world, has been invaluable. Rudy has played a vital role in the leadership of CAP, and we look forward to his continued contribution to our ideas.”
Before his current appointment at the Pentagon, Singh was the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Department of State. He has also served in the Department of Defense as a senior advisor, representing the department in National Security Council policy reviews of Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan and later leading the development of the department’s post-2014 strategic approach to South and Central Asia.
Prior to his most recent assignments at the Pentagon, Singh served in the Department of Defense from 2003 through 2007 on a number of defense policy issues, including programs to train and equip foreign military forces, U.S. military counterinsurgency and irregular warfare capabilities, stability operations, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, and the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review. As a fellow at the Center for a New American Security from 2007 to 2009, Singh published widely on defense strategy, national security policy, and Asia.
Singh lived and worked in Sri Lanka while running a Ford Foundation program on minority rights and conflict in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. He also reported on the Sri Lankan civil war for the Voice of America. He holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. He will officially join CAP in March.
For more information, please contact Anne Shoup at [email protected] or 202.481.7146.
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