Polly Nayak

Polly Nayak is a Distinguished Fellow with the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center. Nayak retired in 2002 as a senior government executive after a wide-ranging intelligence career. A longtime South Asia expert, she was the Intelligence Community’s most senior expert and manager on South Asia from 1995-2001. She earlier lived and worked in South Asia. In 2011, Nayak led and authored a study on U.S. aid to Pakistan at the Wilson Center.  She is currently working on a book about the role of area expertise in senior U.S. foreign policymaking.