There is no such thing as a free lunch. It may be an adage, but Prof. Stephen Philip Cohen (1936-2019) often paid from his pocket to prove it wrong. I am one among those scores of South Asian scholars, journalists and policymakers fortunate enough to come in contact with this brilliant and generous mentor.
Stephen Philip Cohen, who was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution and for decades the undisputed doyen of South Asian security studies and often described as the ‘dean’ of U.S.-South Asia scholars, experts, and policy wonks, has died, after a prolonged illness that marked his absence at The Brookings Institution, which was his home for many years. He was 83.
Mumbai-born and raised, Irfan Nooruddin, currently a Georgetown University professor, has become the most recent Indian-American Generation X’er to head the South Asia Program of a major DC think tank, replacing the older, white South Asia experts who have directed these programs for decades.
