Ashley J. Tellis is the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specializing in international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy with a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
While on assignment to the U.S. Department of State as senior adviser to the undersecretary of state for political affairs, he was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India.
Previously he was commissioned into the U.S. Foreign Service and served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. Prior to his government service, Tellis was senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and professor of policy analysis at the RAND Graduate School.
He is a counselor at the National Bureau of Asian Research, the research director of its Strategic Asia program, and co-editor of the program’s eighteen most recent annual volumes, including this year’s Strategic Asia: Reshaping Economic Interdependence in the Indo-Pacific.
He is the author of Striking Asymmetries: Nuclear Transitions in Southern Asia (2022) and India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture (2001), the co-author of Interpreting China’s Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (2000), and the co-editor of Getting India Back on Track (2014). Other significant publications include Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China (2015, co-author), Balancing Without Containment: An American Strategy for Managing China (2014), Atoms for War? U.S.-Indian Civilian Nuclear Cooperation and India's Nuclear Arsenal (2006), India as a New Global Power: An Action Agenda for the United States (2005), Measuring National Power in the Post-Industrial Age (2000, co-author), and Stability in South Asia (1997). In addition to many more Carnegie and RAND reports, his academic publications have appeared in several edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals.
Tellis serves as an adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations. He is a member of several professional organizations related to defense and international studies including the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States Naval Institute, and the Navy League of the United States.
He earned his PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. He also holds an MA in political science from the University of Chicago and both BA and MA degrees in economics from the University of Bombay.
The divisions in contemporary geopolitics are an inevitable consequence of colliding ideas and interests against the backdrop of American primacy. The United States should accept their reality while advancing its own interests in a competitive strategic environment.
India will soon hold the largest national election in recorded history and it is likely to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi in office for a third term. The last ten years in India’s history have witnessed conspicuous transformations. What do the next five years hold for India’s trajectory?
Join Ashley J. Tellis in conversation with Jason Furman, Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar, and Mary Lovely for a discussion of how America’s foreign economic policy is changing, its global impact, and its implications for the near future.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is expected to win a third term in office this spring, cementing his own political dominance. But that has come with a dark side—an assault on civil rights and democracy, which some warn will ultimately hinder India.
In order to explore the complexities of our rapidly changing world, the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center will examine pressing global issues through four engaging panel discussions in a one-day event, under the collective title, “The World in Focus: Uncertainty and the Global Outlook for 2024.”
We hosted a discussion on Daniel Baer's book: ‘The Four Tests: What it Will Take to Keep America Strong and Good.’
Biden must reconsider current U.S. policy toward India’s nuclear weapons program and Modi must amend India’s nuclear liability law to realize the accord’s promise and further strengthen the U.S.-India relationship.
An examination of shifts occurring in the global trading system and their implications for the strategic environment in Asia.
India is the largest democracy in the world, and maintaining peace and security can be a daunting challenge. A new volume Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State (Oxford, 2023) examines these challenges. Listen with editors Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur, as well as Rachel Kleinfeld.
In an interview earlier this month, Tellis warned that Washington needs to be more clear-eyed about Indian interests—understanding that they do not always align with those of the United States.
