The line that divides the deep state and the anti-national is terrifyingly thin, the arrest of strategic affairs expert Ashley J. Tellis by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suggests. True, the FBI has said that being charged does not mean he is guilty, but regardless of how the case turns out, Mr. Tellis has his reputation, built over a lifetime, smirched overnight.
This was in the making for several years, the FBI has told the court. Mr. Tellis was under surveillance since 2022, it turns out. To begin with, Mr. Tellis had access to a lot of state secrets of the U.S., and perhaps everyone who has such access might be under some surveillance. Actors in the hazy world of spycraft and secret wars of nation states are aware that they are all by themselves if something goes wrong. The U.S. Justice Department documents are sketchy about the alleged crime, but they sound to suggest that Mr. Tellis shared secret government files with Chinese contacts, and received something in return from them. Mr. Tellis has been released on bond, and his lawyers have told AFP that they would be “vigorously contesting” the charges against him.
Mr. Tellis has held a series of senior positions in the U.S. administration, and was an unpaid consultant with the State Department when he was arrested. Aligned with the Republican Party in the U.S., his most consequential role possibly was at the White House of George W. Bush. At the National Security Council (NSC), as Special Assistant to Mr. Bush and Senior Director for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia, Mr. Tellis played a key role in reshaping the South Asia policy of the U.S., and particularly contributed to the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which was concluded in 2008. That was a turning point in the India-U.S. relations.
Scholarship and policy
Scholarship tailored to suit political and economic interest is far from a scandal now, particularly in international relations. Independent thinking is rarely incentivised in strategic expertise while advocates of particular positions occupy positions of influence. The rise of Mr. Tellis as someone who could easily straddle policy and scholarship in the U.S. corresponded with the dominant bipartisan thinking about India and China.
He became the key proponent of expansive India-U.S. relations over the past two decades. He wanted U.S. primacy in world affairs to last and China’s rise balanced, and placed India in that context from the U.S. vantage. Mr. Tellis championed India under Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi for many years, but in recent years, he turned an India-sceptic, citing the weakening of democratic processes.
His books and monographs represent deep and nuanced scholarship but not always beyond possible conflict of interest. While holding the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mr. Tellis advocated F-16 planes for the IAF. Tata and Boeing, the makers of F-16, are in a partnership.
Mr. Tellis is now accused of keeping in his private custody around 1,000 pages of documents marked ‘TOP SECRET’ and ‘SECRET.’ The documents were reportedly stored in various locations, including filing cabinets and trash bags. From court documents, it appears that he was authorised to access these documents, but perhaps not authorised to print them out and carry them home. Surveillance footage apparently showed him removing documents from the Pentagon’s Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia. He was also reported to have renamed and printed a 1,288-page U.S. Air Force manual labelled ‘Secret’, which he later deleted from the system. The FBI affidavit detailed multiple meetings between Mr. Tellis and Chinese interlocutors between 2022 and 2025, at restaurants in Virginia, close to Washington DC. Documents claim that Mr. Tellis was seen entering a restaurant with a manila envelope and leaving without it, after meeting Chinese contacts.
On another occasion, it is noted that he received a gift bag. If convicted, Mr. Tellis can be in jail for up to 10 years, and be asked to pay fine of up to $250,000.
In the shadow games of strategy, enemies and friends can change abruptly; and yesterday’s terrorist can reincarnate as an honourable head of state. Mr. Tellis has been a key amplifier of the China challenge in Washington DC, and in a peak paradox, is now under a cloud of suspicion of Beijing connections.
Published – October 19, 2025 01:28 am IST
