Her co-authored 2003 book, Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule, explores technology’s role in advancing the objectives and bolstering the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes.
Kalathil joined the Biden administration's National Security Council (NSC) in January 2021 as deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for democracy and human rights after serving as senior director at the National Endowment for Democracy's International Forum for Democratic Studies. According to one of her colleagues at the NSC, covering the handover of Hong Kong from the U.K. to China in 1997 was among the events that caused Kalathil to leave journalism and pursue graduate studies.[4] During her tenure, she was the lead organizer of the inaugural Summit for Democracy.[4] In February 2022, she left the NSC. She started private practice before joining University of Southern California's Center on Communication Leadership and Policy as a DC-based senior fellow in April 2023, leading expansion of the Center's portfolio on the intersections of democratic development, the information environment, and national security.[8][9] In May 2023, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced entry bans over her and 499 other American citizens in response to the Biden administration's earlier sanctions on Russia.[10] In February 2024, Kalathil joined the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy as a visiting senior fellow, leading a new long-term initiative aimed to bolster global democratic resilience. [11]
In their 2003 book titled Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), drawing on cases from China, Cuba, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, Kalathil and co-author Taylor Boas found that contrary to conventional wisdom, authoritarian regimes did not fear the advent of information technology but rather proactively advanced internet development to further their interests.[15][16][17][18][19][20] In a review for The China Quarterly, Christopher R. Hughes of the London School of Economics and Political Science noted that Kalathil and Boas broadened "the debate beyond issues of dissidents-versus-the-state and toward more complex issues concerning the relationship between technological and social change," but critiqued that its coverage of China is too limited.[21]John Ikenberry instead described the book's chapter on China, which illustrates how "Beijing has promoted the Internet while attempting to control its political impact by filtering and monitoring content and encouraging self-censorship," as "a particularly illuminating example."[22]
^ abKalathil, Shanthi; Boas, Taylor C. (2003). Open networks, closed regimes: the impact of the internet on authoritarian rule. A Carnegie Endowment book (1. print., [Nachdr.] ed.). Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ISBN978-0-87003-194-6.
^Wong, John; Zheng, Yongnian, eds. (2004). The SARS epidemic: challenges to China's crisis management. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN978-981-238-948-0.
^Zhang, Xiaoling (2011). The transformation of political communication in China: from propaganda to hegemony. Series on contemporary China. Singapore Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific. ISBN978-981-4340-93-9.
