Kaush Arha is a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. He is also a senior visiting fellow at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. Arha previously served as United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) senior advisor on strategic engagement where he led the global agency-wide framework to counter malign actions of US adversaries. He cochaired, with the USAID deputy administrator, the Clear Choice Executive Council comprised of the agency’s leadership to operationalize the US National Security Strategy in executing US development assistance and diplomacy in the global competitive space.

Arha previously served as a senior transition advisor at the US embassy in Kabul where he coordinated with the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, International Security Assistance Force, and coalition partners in the completion and execution of the first tranche of the transition strategy. As senior coordinator for agriculture, he also directed the US inter-agency agricultural assistance in building the Afghan agricultural economy. Prior to that, Arha served as the deputy assistant secretary and associate solicitor general in the Department of the Interior. He has been a practicing attorney and a visitor professor. He began his career as a senior executive for the state of Wyoming. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley and his JD from Stanford University.