Said Jawad

Former Afghanistan Ambassador to the United States

Tuesday, April 5, 2016  |  12:15pm  |  Main 212

8d7346542ffded93378375d0c10efb4f

Ambassador Jawad is a Senior Political and Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chief Executive of Afghanistan, and the former Ambassador of Afghanistan to the United States.  He is the Chief Executive Officer of Capitalize LLC, a strategic consulting firm that specializes in the investment, security, development and political environments of Afghanistan and the greater Gulf region. He is a member of the International Advisory Council in the Global Political Strategies group at APCO Worldwide, an international strategic communications firm.

Ambassador Jawad’s current and former academic positions include: Diplomat in Residence at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and as Diplomat in Residence at the inaugural fellow at the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. Ambassador Jawad served as Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States from December 2003 to September 2010. He also served as Afghanistan’s non-resident Ambassador to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina.

He returned to Afghanistan after 9/11 to assist in the state-building process, where he played a versatile and crucial role in government, serving as President Karzai’s Press Secretary, Chief of Staff and Director of the Office of International Relations. In these positions, Ambassador Jawad formulated and managed strategies, implemented policies, assisted in the building and re-building of national institutions (including the Afghan National Army) as well as prioritizing major reforms in Afghanistan, notably to the Ministry of Defense and Office of the President.

Ambassador Jawad has published hundreds of articles and commentaries in the United States, Europe and Afghanistan. His op-eds have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, the International Herald Tribune, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador’s Review and Foreign Policy. Interviews with Ambassador Jawad have appeared in many prominent media outlets, including NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” Bloomberg’s “Night Talk with Mike Schneider,” CBS, C-SPAN, Al Jazeera, BBC and Voice of America.