Former Afghan Ambassador Appointed Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School

Former ambassador of Afghanistan Said Tayeb Jawad has been named the inaugural Fisher Family Fellow to the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School, officials announced earlier this week.

The fellowship for the Future of Diplomacy Project—headed by Kennedy School professor R. Nicholas Burns with a launch date of Nov. 15—will bring practitioners involved with international policy to Harvard to increase international affairs teaching on campus.

During his one month residency, Jawad will participate in public speaking events on the future of Afghanistan as well as the Future of Diplomacy Project’s programming, which examines innovation in negotiation and diplomacy.

“We try to get these practitioners as close to students as possible, not just for Kennedy School students going into foreign affairs, also to the wider Harvard community,” said Executive Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project Cathryn A. Cluver.

Cluver said the fellowship aims to help seasoned practitioners who have just left the diplomacy arena to delve into very specific diplomatic and international situations with students.

“We want them to talk about their lives and how their work has changed over the course of recent years as new challenges are emerging,” Cluver said.

From 2003 to 2010, Jawad served as the Afghan Ambassador to the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico concurrently. Previously, he worked in the Afghanistan government as President Hamid Karzai’s Press Secretary, Chief of Staff, and director of the Office of International Relations where he worked with the international community to build and restore state institutions. Jawad is currently the chairman of the Foundation for Afghanistan as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Capitalize, LLC.

“We are so fortunate to have him  after just leaving the international stage,” Cluver said, noting that Jawad was instrumental in the reconstruction in Afghanistan. “In issues like how they move forward in the reconciliation process, the role the United Nations plays in Afghanistan, the border relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in all of these issues, he has an acute vantage point.”

—Staff writer Victoria L. Venegas can be reached at vvenegas@college.harvard.edu.