Weaving together Afghanistan's political history with personal experiences, Waheed Ahmad will provide a window into the continuity and change that defines Afghanistan. He will discuss recent occupations, Taliban control, and the post-9/11 democratic experiment, all overlaid with his own personal journey as a public servant. Beginning in his hometown and at the local level, he then returned to Afghanistan after graduating from Binghamton University to work in the Afghan national government and with United States and international actors. You will gain a unique window into how these stories come together to help keep Afghans moving forward, in spite of all that has been lost.

A public lecture on service in Afghanistan with Waheed Ahmad. Sponsored by the Binghamton University Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention.

Waheed Ahmad
Waheed Ahmad is a former Fulbright Scholar who graduated from Binghamton University with a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree in 2018, and who currently serves as a Charles E. Scheidt Resident Practitioner at I-GMAP. Early in his career, he worked in the Ministry of Interior and in a Directorate of Local Governance in Afghanistan. After graduation, he returned to Afghanistan and obtained a position in the Office of the National Security Council (ONSC). He started as a Director of National Intelligence Coordination (2018-2020) and from January 2020 until the Taliban forcibly took control in August 2021, he was the Senior Strategic Director/Advisor in the ONSC within President Ashraf Ghani’s administration. In that role, he worked closely with the U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State officials. In that role he was responsible for a number of important national security projects, managing them within the Afghanistan government and in coordination with United States government officials. He managed to evacuate in August, only days before the final U.S. withdrawal, and two months later was able to come to the United States. He has since been waiting for his asylum case to be heard and processed.