Shanthi Kalathil (born 1972)[1] is an American foreign policy analyst and former journalist, currently serving as a Washington D.C.–based senior fellow at the University of Southern California's Center on Communication Leadership and Policy and a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy, where her work focuses on strengthening global democratic resilience in countering authoritarian influence.

Kalathil was formerly deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for democracy and human rights at the White House National Security Council during the Biden administration.

[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.

"[14] 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.

[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.