His Excellency Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad
Afghan Ambassador to the United States
Embassy of Afghanistan
Washington, D.C.
Ambassador Said T. Jawad has served as Afghanistan's Ambassador to the United States since December 2003. Under his leadership, the Embassy of Afghanistan is emerging as one of the most successful and progressive missions in Washington, D.C. He also serves as Afghanistan's non-resident Ambassador to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina.
Ambassador Jawad returned to Afghanistan after 9/11 to assist in the state-building process, where he played a versatile and crucial role in government, serving as President Karzai's Press Secretary, Chief of Staff and Director of the Office of International Relations. In these positions, Ambassador Jawad formulated and managed strategies, implemented policies, assisted in the building and re-building of national institutions (notably, the oft-praised Afghan National Army) as well as prioritizing major reforms in Afghanistan, most notably to the Ministry of Defense. At this time, Ambassador Jawad also served as the president's principal liaison with the constitutional commission throughout the drafting of the Afghan Constitution and was instrumental in drafting Afghanistan’s foreign investment laws.
The ambassador has been equally, if not more so, active in his role as writer, addressing in his articles and commentaries the full gamut of issues relating to Afghanistan's condition both at home and abroad. His op-eds and interviews have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, the International Herald Tribune, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador’s Review and Foreign Policy. Furthermore, Ambassador Jawad frequently appeared in major international media outlets such as NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN's "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, Bloomberg's "Night Talk" with Mike Schneider, as well as CBS, C-SPAN, BBC, Voice of America, and Al Jazeera.
As a seasoned speaker and lecturer, Ambassador Jawad has been invited to speak at many academic institutions, among them Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, Kansas State University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, as well as the National Defense Intelligence College and National Defense University. Outside of academia, he is also a frequent speaker at numerous think tanks and policy centers, including the Brookings Institute, the United States Institute of Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Center for American Progress, American Enterprise Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Asia Society and over 21 member-state World Affairs Councils in North America.
Awards and honorary degrees granted to Ambassador Jawad include the Constitutional Loya Jirga Service, Medal, Government of Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2003; Global Citizen Award, Roots of Peace, Washington, D.C., 2008; Honorary Doctorate Degree in Organization Leadership, Argosy University, Washington, D.C. 2007; and the Award of Merit for Rebuilding a Nation, ASEE, Washington, D.C, 2007
Furthermore, hundreds of conferences relating to Afghanistan and the region have sought out the ambassador's active participation.
A fluent speaker of English, German and French, Ambassador Jawad was educated at the Afghan French Lycée Esteqial and School of Law and Political Sciences at Kabul University and later at Westfaelische Wilhelms University in Muenster, Germany. He earned his MBA from the Golden Gate University in San Francisco and subsequently worked for a number of prominent law firms in the United States.
He is married to Shamim Jawad, a financial consultant, and they have a son, Iman, 19, who is a freshman at Tufts University.
Voice of America Profiles A Day in the Life of Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad (Dari)
