Alyssa Ayres is the dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. A foreign policy practitioner with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors, she previously was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow.
Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Her book about India’s rise on the world stage, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World, was published by Oxford University Press and was selected by the Financial Times for its “Summer 2018: Politics” list.
From 2010 to 2013 Alyssa served as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia. During her tenure at the State Department in the Barack Obama administration, she covered all issues across a dynamic region of 1.3 billion people at the time (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and provided policy direction for four U.S. embassies and four consulates.
Her next book will examine India’s urban transformation and its international implications and will be published by Oxford University Press.