Skip navigation
Joshua White

Joshua White

Professor of Practice of International Affairs

About

Joshua T. White is Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and serves as the inaugural director of the U.S.-ASEAN and U.S.-Pacific Institutes for Rising Leaders. He is also a Nonresident Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution. He previously served at the White House as Senior Advisor & 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.

Prior to joining the White House, Dr. White 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.

Dr. White 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 PhD with distinction from Johns Hopkins SAIS. 
  • Joshua T. White, “After the Foundational Agreements: An Agenda for U.S.-India Defense and Security Cooperation,” Brookings Institution, January 2021.

  • Joshua T. White, “China’s Indian Ocean Ambitions: Investment, Influence, and Military Advantage,” Global China Series, Brookings Institution, June 2020.

  • Joshua T. White, “Navigating Two Asias: How Washington Deals with the Indo-Pacific’s Rising Powers,” India Review 18, no. 4 (2019): 407–436.

  • Joshua T. White and Kyle Deming, “Dependent Trajectories: India’s MIRV Program and Deterrence Stability in South Asia,” in Deterrence Instability and Nuclear Weapons in South Asia, eds. Michael Krepon, Joshua T. White, Julia Thompson, and Shane Mason (Washington: Stimson Center, 2015).

  • Joshua T. White, “A Cooperative Jihad? The Religious Logic of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the Limits of Pan-Sunni Cooperation in Pakistan,” in Pakistan’s Enduring Challenges, eds. C. Christine Fair and Sarah Watson (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

  • Joshua T. White and Niloufer Siddiqui, “Syed Abul A’ala Maududi,” The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics, eds. John L. Esposito and Emad El-Din Shahin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

  • Joshua T. White and Shuja Ali Malik, “Governance Reforms in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas: The Long Road to Nowhere?” U.S. Institute of Peace, PeaceBrief no. 135, October 15, 2012.

  • Joshua T. White, “Beyond Moderation: Dynamics of Political Islam in Pakistan,” Contemporary South Asia 21, no. 2 (June 2012).

  • Joshua T. White, “Vigilante Islamism in Pakistan: Religious Party Responses to the Lal Masjid Crisis,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology 7 (Autumn 2008).

  • Joshua T. White, “The Shape of Frontier Rule: Governance and Transition, from the Raj to the Modern Pakistani Frontier,” Asian Security 4, no. 3 (Autumn 2008).

 
 

Expertise

Regions

  • Afghanistan
  • East Asia
  • Indian Ocean Region
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia

Topics

  • American Foreign Policy
  • International Relations
  • Strategic Studies

In the News

Time to reframe Pak-U.S. relations.

Joshua White cited in Daily Times, 07/07

Lloyd Austin’s visit and the unfolding picture on U.S.-India relations.

Joshua White interviewed on The Hindu In Focus podcast, 03/23

U.S. Defense Secretary to visit India.

Joshua White cited in The Diplomat, 03/08

India – China border dispute.

Joshua White interviewed on Hopkins Podcast on Foreign Relations, 6/26

Global China’s ambitions in the Indian Ocean region.

Joshua White wrote for Brookings Institution, 6/16

China's evolving role in South Asia.

Daniel Markey and Joshua White participated in East-West Center in Washington webinar, 5/26

Trump returns from India visit, but with some rewards yet to come.

Joshua White quoted on Voice of America, 2/25

What Donald Trump gets out of his trip to India.

Joshua White quoted on BBC News, 2/24

At Trump’s India rally, Modi bets on bolstering his image.

Joshua White quoted in Associated Press, 2/22