The Hon. Vipin Narang

The Hon. Vipin Narang

Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy
U.S. Department of Defense
NSWG

The Honorable Dr. Vipin Narang is the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy. From 2022 to 2024, Dr. Narang served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy. He has previously held fellowships at both Harvard and Stanford Universities and is a former Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT and a member of MIT’s Security Studies Program. His research interests include nuclear proliferation and strategy, South Asian security, and general security studies.

The Honorable Dr. Vipin Narang is the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy.

From 2022 to 2024, Dr. Narang served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy. He has been an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT, a member of MIT’s Security Studies Program, a Fellow at Harvard University’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, a predoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a Junior Faculty Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.       

His research interests include nuclear proliferation and strategy, South Asian security, and general security studies.   

Dr. Narang’s work has been published in several journals including International Security, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and International Organization. He is the author of two books: Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (2014) and Seeking the Bomb: Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation (2022). He co-edited, along with Scott Sagan, The Fragile Balance of Terror: Deterrence in the New Nuclear Age (2023).

He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government, Harvard University in 2010, where he was awarded the Edward M. Chase Prize for the best dissertation in International Relations. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering with distinction from Stanford University and an M. Phil with Distinction in International Relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied on a Marshall Scholarship.