Ali Yawar Adili is a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC) and an independent policy researcher and analyst specializing in international security, conflict resolution, and democratization. Before his displacement following the events of August 2021, he was a researcher and country director at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based policy research organization. In that role, he published many research papers (available online here) on topics such as Afghan peace talks, state institutions, elections, ethnic politics, the Taliban, and the Islamic State-Khorasan Province.
He has collaborated with various organizations, including as the project coordinator for the Afghan Observatory Program, an initiative by Future Frontlines, and with the Fellows programs at New America in Washington, DC, where he worked to amplify the voices of exiled Afghan journalists and human rights defenders. His professional experience extends to roles with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Afghanistan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Baghdad, Iraq, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Afghanistan, and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. He also contributed as a columnist and political analyst for Afghan newspapers such as Daily Outlook Afghanistan and Daily Open Society.
He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University in New York, with a concentration in international security policy and a specialization in international conflict resolution. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Kateb University in Kabul. In addition to Farsi-Dari, he is fluent in English and Urdu and understands Arabic.
He has authored a chapter for the forthcoming book “Power and Authority in Afghanistan: Rethinking Politics, Intervention and Rule” and is coediting a book on Afghanistan.