Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed his special assistant on national security Dr Moeed Yusuf as the national security adviser. The Cabinet Division issued a notification on Tuesday, confirming Dr Yusuf’s appointment for the post. According to the communique, the designation will be equivalent to a federal minister. On December 24, 2019, Yusuf was appointed as special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on national security division and strategic policy planning and was given the status of minister of state. Yusuf is the associate vice president at the Asia Centre at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) . He is the author of Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: US Crisis Management in South Asia. In October 2019, he was made chairman of Strategic Policy Planning Cell (SPPC) under the National Security Division (NSD). The cell was formed to assist the government through research and draft policy recommendations on national issues. Yusuf has done Masters in International Relations and PhD in Political Science from Boston University. He was a research fellow at the Frederick S Padree Centre for the study of the longer range future at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University’s Political Science Department before joining USIP in 2010.