Ashraf Ghani

His doctoral thesis was titled 'Production and Domination: Afghanistan, 1747–1901'.

His thesis advisors included Conrad M. Arensberg, Richard Bulliet, Morton Fried, and Robert F. Murphy.

Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan former politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.

Ghani was born in Logar, Afghanistan.

After his grade-school education in Afghanistan, he spent much of his time abroad, studying in Lebanon and the United States.

Ghani was born on 19 May 1949 in the Logar Province in the Kingdom of Afghanistan to Shah Pesand, a clerk worker, and Kawbaba Lodin, who hailed from Kandahar.

He belongs to the Ahmadzai Pashtun tribe.

Ghani's grade-school education was mostly done in Afghanistan.

He attended secondary-level schooling in Kabul.

But for the 1966–1967 school year, Ghani studied as a foreign exchange student at Lake Oswego High School (LOHS) in Lake Oswego, Oregon under the name Ashraf Ahmad.

The American Field Service sponsored his foreign exchange stay.

He served on the student council.

In 1973, he received a Bachelor of Arts in political studies from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

There, he met his future wife, Rula.

From 1973 to 1977, Ghani served on the faculty of Kabul University and Aarhus University in Denmark in 1977.

In 1977, he received a Master's in cultural anthropology from Columbia University on a government scholarship.

While Ghani originally intended to stay for two years, the outbreak of the 1978 Saur Revolution led to much of his male family being imprisoned.

After receiving his PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University in 1983, he taught at various institutions and was an associate professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University.

He stayed at Columbia and received a PhD in cultural anthropology in 1983.

In 1983, after receiving his PhD, he taught briefly at University of California, Berkeley, and then at Johns Hopkins University as an associate professor from 1983 to 1991.

For much of the 1990s, he worked at the World Bank.

In December 2001, he returned to Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban government.

He then served as finance minister in Hamid Karzai's cabinet.

He resigned in December 2004 to become the dean of Kabul University.

In 2009, Ghani ran in the 2009 Afghan presidential election but came in fourth.

In 2014, Ghani became president after winning the controversial 2014 Afghan presidential election.

The election was so disputed that negotiations between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah were mediated by the United States.

Ghani became president and Abdullah chief executive, with power split 50-50.

On 18 February 2020, Ghani was re-elected after a delayed result from the 2019 presidential elections.

He was sworn in on 9 March 2020.

As president, Ghani was known for his intensity and energetic speeches.

He aimed to transform Afghanistan into a technocratic state, winning him support from youth and urban demographics.

His cabinets were relatively young and well-educated.

Ghani made efforts to make peace with Taliban insurgents and improving relations with Pakistan.

However many of his promises, such as fighting corruption and turning the country into a trade hub between central and south Asia, were left unfulfilled.

His position was also weakened by political rivalries, his attempt to lessen the power of ex-warlords, and an uneasy relationship with the United States regarding the war.

He was also criticized for being aloof and short-tempered, including being in denial during the Taliban's offensive in 2021.

On 15 August 2021, his term ended abruptly, as the Taliban took over Kabul.

Ghani and staff fled Afghanistan and took refuge in the United Arab Emirates.

He later stated he left in order to avoid further violence, and that staying and dying would have accomplished nothing but adding another tragedy to Afghanistan's history.