Dr Jonah Blank is a political scientist and anthropologist who is currently based in Singapore, with one foot in the world of academia and the other in that of public policy. From 1999-2011 he served as Policy Director for South and Southeast Asia of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He began his professional life as Finance Editor of the Asahi Evening News in Tokyo, earned his doctorate in social anthropology and has focused his career on the broad intersection of human capital, public policy, international security, economy and social development.
Dr Blank has taught graduate courses at Harvard University (where he earned his PhD and Masters, after earning his Bachelor’s from Yale), Georgetown University, George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of the books Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity Among the Daudi Bohras and Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana through India.