Gautam Mukhopadhaya is no longer with the Carnegie Endowment.
Gautam Mukhopadhaya was a visiting scholar in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment, sponsored by the Asia Foundation. A serving Indian Foreign Service officer of ambassadorial rank, his research is focused on India’s Afghanistan policy and its relationship with U.S. strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Ambassador Mukhopadhaya reopened the Indian Embassy in Kabul in November 2001 following a break in India’s diplomatic relations with Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 1996, and served as charge d’affaires there until March 2002. His most recent official appointment was as India’s ambassador to Syria (December 2005–January 2009). In between, he served as joint secretary in the Indian Ministry of Defense (2002–2005).
In addition, he has worked at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations and at the UN headquarters in New York as a consultant on social development, and has served in various capacities at Indian Embassies in Mexico, France, and Cuba, and the Ministry of External Affairs in India. He is with the Carnegie Endowment until March 2010.
President Obama has placed a greater emphasis on the need for a regional approach to Afghanistan. Leading experts analyze what a regional strategy would mean in practice through the eyes of key states, including Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and India, and what it could mean for U.S. policy.
The recent London Conference on Afghanistan has revived debate on negotiations and reconciliation with the Taliban. Optimistic assessments of the Marjah operations, as well as pessimistic evaluations of the Afghan state, have both been used as arguments in favor of talking to the Taliban.
