Patricia Gossman is senior researcher on Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch. Prior to joining HRW, she was Director of the Afghanistan Program at the International Center for Transitional Justice on Afghanistan, and was the founder and director of the Afghanistan Justice Project, an Open Society Institute-funded project to document war crimes committed during the Afghan conflict, 1978– 2001. She was Senior Researcher for South Asia at HRW in the 1990s, covering not only Afghanistan, but India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Professor Barnett R. Rubin is a Senior Fellow and Associate Director of Center on International Cooperation, where he directs the Afghanistan Pakistan Regional Program. From April 2009 to October 2013, Professor Rubin was the Senior Adviser to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the US Department of State. In November–December 2001 he served as special advisor to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, during the negotiations that produced the Bonn Agreement.

Zahid ur Rehman has Masters degrees in Political Science from Peshawar University and in Peace and Conflict Studies from the National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is conducting post-graduate research on the wartime experience of Afghan nomad tribes.

Zahid ur Rehman is a contributor to our Accord publication series and not a staff member of Conciliation Resources. The views expressed in the publication are their own and do not reflect the position of Conciliation Resources. We cannot share contributors' contact details. 

Younus Qanooni joined Ahmad Shah Massoud’s mujahidin based in his native Panjshir Valley following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He was involved in establishing the Northern Alliance and served as Interior Minister in Burhanuddin Rabbani’s government. He was chief negotiator for the Northern Alliance delegation to the Bonn conference. Mr Qanooni was minister in the post-Bonn Interim Administration and Education Minister in the Afghan Transitional Administration (established in June 2002), and was a security advisor to interim President Hamid Karzai.

Dr Habiba Sarabi is Deputy Chair of the High Peace Council and Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer of Afghanistan on Women and Youth affairs. She was appointed as Governor of Bamiyan Province by President Hamid Karzai in 2005 – the first Afghan woman to become a governor of any province in the country. She previously served as Minister of Women’s Affairs as well as Minister of Culture and Education. Dr Sarabi has been instrumental in promoting women’s rights and representation and environment issues.

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Abdul Hadi Sadat is a researcher with over 15 years of experience in qualitative social research with organisations including the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), the Center for Policy and Human Development (CPHD) and Creative Associates International. He has a degree in journalism from Kabul University.

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Accord Issue 27: Afghanistan

Scott Worden is director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior to joining USIP, he was director of the Lessons Learned Program at the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), and served as acting director of policy as well as a senior policy advisor for the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Dr Christopher D. Kolenda, Founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy in Washington DC, recently served as the Senior Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan to US Under Secretary of Defense Michèle A. Flournoy and three four-star Generals in Afghanistan. He was decorated with the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award for his work on strategy. A veteran of four combat tours in Afghanistan, Chris holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College, London; his dissertation is a critical analysis of American strategic leadership in post-9/11 wars.

Ed Hadley has worked for the UK government on foreign policy and conflict issues for nearly 15 years. After posts at the Assessments Staff of the Cabinet Office and National Security Secretariat, he worked for the Foreign Office for five years as a Senior Research Analyst on Afghanistan, with a particular focus on the Taliban insurgency. In 2015 he moved to the Stabilisation Unit, where he continues to focus on Afghanistan and South Asia as well as on wider research projects on peace processes and elite bargains and the analysis of the impact of UK stabilisation interventions abroad.

Fleur Roberts is a British & Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group trustee and has worked with civil society in Afghanistan since 2011. She has had a particular focus on working with local civil society to test and deliver locally led approaches to support sustainable development. She holds an MA in International Development from the University of Auckland.