--- description: Knox Thames served as the State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities during both the Obama and Trump administrations. He is a Senior Fellow at Pepperdine University. title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Knox Thames ## Knox Thames Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close [Knox Thames](http://www.knoxthames.com/) served as the State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities during both the Obama and Trump administrations. He is a Senior Fellow at Pepperdine University. ## Knox Thames Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close *  Jun 24, 2023 ### [The Biden-Modi Meeting Was a Failure for Democracy](https://time.com/6289932/the-biden-modi-meeting-was-a-failure-for-democracy/) Biden missed a vital chance to hold India to account for human rights abuses [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  Jun 28, 2021 ### [Afghanistan’s Religious Minorities Face an Uncertain Future](https://time.com/6075566/hazara-shia-afghanistan/) [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/knox-thomas/","name":"Knox Thames"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/knox-thomas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/knox-thomas/"},"name":"Knox Thames","jobTitle":null,"description":"Knox Thames served as the State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities during both the Obama and Trump administrations. He is a Senior Fellow at Pepperdine University.","url":"https://time.com/author/knox-thomas/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```