Zalmay Khalilzad
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| Zalmay Khalilzad | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office April 17, 2007 |
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| President | George W. Bush |
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| Preceded by | Alejandro Daniel Wolff |
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| In office 2005 – April 17, 2007 |
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| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | John Negroponte |
| Succeeded by | Ryan Crocker |
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| In office 2003 – 2005 |
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| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Robert Finn |
| Succeeded by | Ronald E. Neumann |
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| Born | March 22, 1951 Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Cheryl Benard |
| Profession | Academic and Diplomat |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad (Pashto/Persian: زلمی خلیلزاد - Zalmay Khalīlzād) (born: 22 March 1951) is the permanent United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He has been involved with U.S. policy makers at the White House since the early 1980s, and is the highest-ranking Afghan American and Muslim in the Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.[1] Khalilzad's previous assignments in the Administration include U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.
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[edit] Early history and personal life
An ethnic Pashtun,[1] Khalilzad was born in the city of Mazari Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Khalilzad's father was a government official under the monarchy of Mohammed Zahir Shah.[2] Zalmay began his education at the private Ghazi Lycée school in Kabul. He immigrated to the United States as a high school exchange student, but attained his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Khalilzad received his PhD at the University of Chicago, where he studied closely with strategic thinker Albert Wohlstetter, a prominent nuclear deterrence thinker and an opponent to the disarmament treaties, who provided Zalmay with contacts in the government and with RAND.[1]
From 1979 to 1989, Zalmay Khalilzad worked as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. During that time he worked closely with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Carter Administration's architect of the policy supporting the Mujahideen resistance to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.[1] (See also: Operation Cyclone.)
Zalmay Khalilzad is married to Cheryl Benard, who is an author and political analyst with the RAND Corporation. Khalilzad and Benard have two sons, Alexander and Maximilian.
[edit] Career history
In 1984 Khalilzad accepted a one-year Council on Foreign Relations fellowship to join the State Department, where he worked for Paul Wolfowitz, then the Director of Policy Planning.
From 1985 to 1989, Khalilzad served in President Ronald Reagan's Administration as a senior State Department official advising on the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq war. During this time he was the State Department's Special Advisor on Afghanistan to Undersecretary of State Michael H. Armacost. In this role he developed and guided the international program to promote the merits of a Mujahideen-led Afghanistan to oust the Soviet occupation. From 1990-1992, Khalilzad served under President George H. W. Bush in the Defense Department as Deputy Undersecretary for Policy Planning.
Between 1993 and 2000, Khalilzad was the Director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Force Structure at the RAND Corporation. During this time, he helped found RAND's Center for Middle Eastern Studies as well as "Strategic Appraisal," a periodic RAND publication. He also authored several influential monographs, including "The United States and a Rising China" and "From Containment to Global Leadership? America and the World After the Cold War." While at RAND, Khalilzad also had a brief stint consulting for Cambridge Energy Research Associates, which at the time was conducting a risk analysis for Unocal, now part of ConocoPhillips, for a proposed 1,400 km (890 mile), $2-billion, 622 m³/s (22,000 ft³/s) Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline project which would have extended from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and further proceeding to Pakistan. He acted as a special liaison between UNOCAL and the Taliban regime.[2] He is one of the original members of Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was a signatory of the letter to President Bill Clinton sent on January 26, 1998, which called for him to accept the aim of "removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power" using "a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts."[3]
In 2001, President George W. Bush asked Khalilzad to head the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Department of Defense and Khalilzad briefly served as Counselor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In May 2001, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced Khalilzad's appointment as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southwest Asia, Near East, and North African Affairs at the National Security Council. In December 2002 the President appointed Khalilzad to the position of Ambassador at Large for Free Iraqis with the task of coordinating "preparations for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq."[4]
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, President Bush came to rely on Khalilzad's Afghanistan expertise. Khalilzad was involved in the early stages of planning to overthrow the Taliban and on December 31st 2001 was selected as Bush's Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan. He served in that position until November of 2003, when he was appointed to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Khalilzad held the position of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from November 2003 until June 2005. During this time, he oversaw the drafting of Afghanistan's constitution, was involved with the country's first elections, and helped to organize the first meeting of Afghanistan's parliament (the Loya Jirga). It was rumored by some that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was very reliant on Khalilzad's guidance, including rumors that Khalilzad pressured some candidates in the election to drop out, leaving Karzai with fewer opponents. However, Khalilzad denied this.[5] During 2004 and 2005 he was also involved in helping with the establishment of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), which is the first western-style higher learning educational institution in Afghanistan.[6]
[edit] Time as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
Khalilzad began his job as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq on June 21, 2005. He was credited for helping negotiate compromises which allowed the ratification of Iraq's Constitution in October 2005, which allows for the partitioning of Iraq into different regions along ethnic lines. Khalilzad also worked to ensure that the December 2005 elections ran smoothly and played a substantial role in forming the current government. Khalilzad was one of the first high-level Administration officials to warn that sectarian violence was overtaking the insurgency as the number one threat to Iraq's stability. After the Al Askari shrine bombing, in February 2006, he warned that spreading sectarian violence might lead to civil war — and possibly even a broader conflict involving neighboring countries.
Khalilzad's term as Ambassador to Iraq ended on March 26, 2007. He was replaced by Ryan Crocker, a career diplomat who was serving as Ambassador to Pakistan previously.
[edit] United States Ambassador to the United Nations
On February 12, 2007, the White House submitted Khalilzad's nomination to the Senate to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.[7] He was confirmed by the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate on March 29, 2007 by a unanimous voice vote.[8] This marked a strong contrast to Khalilzad's predecessor, John R. Bolton, whose often controversial rhetoric caused him to fail to be confirmed by the Senate resulting in a recess appointment. Colleagues at the UN noted that Khalilzad has a different, more reconciling style than Bolton's.[9]
In November 2007, Khalilzad charged that Iran is helping the insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also told the media, soon after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its report on Iran, that the Iranian government is clearly going ahead with its nuclear program. Khalilzad explained that the United States will try to pass another resolution in the U.N. Security Council under Chapter 7, to impose additional sanctions on Iran.[10]
Currently (March 2008) he strongly supports the independence of Kosovo. However, in the other hand, he doesn't support the possible independence of the separatist region of Abkhazia.
[edit] Writing on U.S. leadership
Khalilzad wrote several articles on the subject of the value of U.S. global leadership in the mid-90's. The specific scenarios for conflict he envisioned in the case of a decline in American power have made his writings extremely popular in the world of competitive high school and college policy debate.
- Khalilzad, Zalmay (1995). "Losing the moment? The United States and the world after the Cold War". The Washington Quarterly 18:2: 03012.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d International House at the University of Chicago - Alumni In The News, Ambassador Zalmay M. Khalilzad, PhD '79
- ^ a b Livergood, Norman D. (2003). America, Awake!: We Must Take Back Our Country. United States: Dandelion Books, LLC, 332. ISBN 189330227X.
- ^ Letter Dated: January 26, 1998
- ^ The White House - Statement by the Press Secretary (December 2, 2002)
- ^ TIME - Inside Karzai's Campaign (October 4, 2004)
- ^ Azizi Hotak General Trading Group
- ^ The White House - Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate (February 12, 2007)
- ^ Examiner - New U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Starts Job (April 23, 2007)
- ^ "A matter of honour", The Economist, 2007-07-26. Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
- ^ Pajhwok Afghan News, Iran supports insurgent groups in Afghanistan: Khalilzad (Nov. 16, 2007)
[edit] External links
- Zalmay.com, a profile view
- Profile of Khalilzad, RightWeb
- Khalilzad profile in The New Yorker
- Profile: Khalilzad, The Center for Cooperative Research
- RAND transition 2001 panel members, The RAND Corporation
- Zalmay Khalilzad's campaign contributions
- Afghan Roots Keep Adviser Firmly in the Inner Circle - mentions his past roles involving the Afghan mujaheddin
- Current Biography August 2006 cover story
- RFE/RL interview with Zalmay Khalilzad (May 18, 2007)
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Robert Finn |
United States Ambassador to Afghanistan 2003 – 2005 |
Succeeded by Ronald E. Neumann |
| Preceded by John Negroponte |
United States Ambassador to Iraq June 21, 2005 – March 26, 2007 |
Succeeded by Ryan Crocker |
| Preceded by Alejandro Daniel Wolff |
United States Ambassador to the United Nations April 17, 2007 – Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
