ALAPPUZHA: Kannankara village and Kalathil family of Alappuzha are rejoicing. For the ‘granddaughter’ of the village has been appointed to a top post in the National Security Council (NSC) of the United States by President Joe Biden. Shanthi Kalathil, daughter of the late James Kalathil and Taipei national Lucia, was named the coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights in NSC.
Born and brought up in the US, 49-year-old Shanthi was serving as the senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. Pappachan Kalathil, her paternal uncle, termed it a great accolade for the family and the village in Muhamma.
“My elder brother James and I went to the US around 40 years ago. He served as a professor in various universities there, but died a few years ago. Shanthi was brilliant in studies and completed journalism from the London School of Economics. Her new assignment will be a gift to democracy because she admires its values,” said Pappachan, a former president of the Federation of Kerala Associations in North America (FOKANA).
She had also served as a senior democracy fellow at the US Agency for International Development, associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, non-resident associate with the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University and as a consultant for the World Bank and many more.
She has authored numerous policy and scholarly publications, including Diplomacy, Development and Security in the Information Age (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 2013), Developing Independent Media as an Institution of Accountable Governance (The World Bank, 2008), and The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003).