Ali Ahmad Jalali
Former Interior Minister of Afghanistan; Distinguished Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, USA
Biography
Ali Ahmad Jalali was born in 1940, in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has been a US citizen since 1987, and currently resides in Maryland with his wife and two children.
In January 2003, Jalali returned to Afghanistan and was appointed Minister of Interior under the Transitional Government. Ali Ahmad Jalali was re-appointed Minister of Interior in December 2004, where he served until September 2005.
Jalali, a former colonel in the Afghan National Army, served as a top advisor at the Afghan Resistance Headquarters in Peshawar during the Soviet invasion. He then worked as a writer and broadcaster for Voice of America, an international multimedia broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. He held this position for nearly 20 years before being appointed to the posts of Director of the Afghanistan National Radio Network Initiative and Chief of the Pashto, Dari and Farsi services within the VOA.
Ali Ahmad Jalali earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the Afghan Military University in 1961. He also earned a diploma from the US Army Infantry Advance Course at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1964, a Masters in Military Science from the Staff College in Kabul in 1966, and graduated from the British Staff College in 1967. He has served as a professor at both the Military University and Staff College in Kabul, as well as at the Institute of Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, he is a Distinguished Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University, which is located in Washington, D.C.
Jalali is the author of several books, strategic analyses, and articles, including a three-volume military history of Afghanistan and an analytical review of the Mujahideen war against the occupying Soviet forces.
