Ashley J. Tellis — long regarded as one of the most influential voices on South Asia and US foreign policy — is now at the centre of a sensational national security scandal. But before his arrest on charges of unlawfully retaining classified defence documents, Tellis was known less as a suspect and more as a strategist whose ideas shaped Washington’s approach to India, China, Pakistan , and the Indo-Pacific. Here’s what he has argued — and where he said it. In his much-discussed 2025 essay “India’s Great-Power Delusions” in Foreign Affairs, Tellis argued that India’s ambitions far exceed its capabilities. New Delhi, he wrote, aspires to become a pole in a multipolar world but remains constrained by slow economic growth, limited military capacity, and weak institutions. He devoted s

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