The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a conservative center-right/right-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C., that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. AEI is an independent nonprofit organization supported primarily by contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals.
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is an Afghan former politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.
Paula Jon Dobriansky is an American diplomat, public official, and foreign policy expert who served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001–2009) and the President's Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007–2009). A specialist in Central/East European affairs and the former Soviet Union, trans-Atlantic relations, and political-military affairs, Dobriansky held key senior roles in the administrations of five U.S. presidents.
Anne Woods Patterson is an American diplomat and career Foreign Service Officer. She served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2013 to 2017. She previously served as United States Ambassador to Egypt until 2013 and as United States Ambassador to Pakistan from July 2007 to October 2010.
Ajmal Shams is an Afghan politician and former civil engineer.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is an American international affairs expert with a focus on climate and energy, defense and security, nuclear weapons, and conflict and governance. She was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in five other countries, from 1997 to 2015. She has also held jobs in the Executive and Legislative branches of government, management and research in nonprofits, and journalism.
Harriet Lee Elam-Thomas is a United States diplomat and university professor who directs the Diplomacy Program under International and Global Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida. From 2000 to 2002, Thomas served as the United States Ambassador to Senegal.
Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili is an economic policy expert, an advocate for transparency, accountability, good governance and human capital development, a humanitarian and an activist. She is a former vice president for the World Bank, co-founder and founding director of Transparency International, co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement and has served twice as federal Minister in Nigeria. She is also the founder of #FixPolitics Initiative, a research-based citizen-led initiative, the School of Politics Policy and Governance (SPPG), and Human Capital Africa.
Paul E. Simons is a career diplomat who had served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Chile from 2007 to 2010.
The International Growth Centre (IGC) is an economic research centre based at the London School of Economics, operated in partnership with University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government.
The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for conservative and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advises its member think tanks on fundraising, running a nonprofit, and communicating ideas. Founded in 1992, it is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with member groups located in all fifty states.
Tatiana C. Gfoeller is a veteran American diplomat. Since joining the Department of State in 1984, her foreign postings have included Poland, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the Soviet Union, Belgium, Russia, and Turkmenistan. Gfoeller has served as a Deputy Chief of Mission in Turkmenistan, Deputy Principal Officer in Russia, and Consul General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She was awarded the Rusk Fellowship in 2000. Additionally, Gfoeller authored a book on U.S. foreign policy interests in the Caspian Basin and has taught master's degree classes in political science at Georgetown University. She is a member of numerous foreign affairs organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations and speaks Russian, French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic. From 2011 to 2017, Gfoeller was a political adviser to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. From 2008 to 2011, she served as Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic. Her father was the French writer of Russian extraction Vladimir Volkoff. Gfoeller served as President of American Women for International Understanding, an international women's rights NGO, from 2020 to 2022 and is now on its Board of Directors. Since 2022, Ambassador Gfoeller has been serving as the Global Ambassador-at-Large of the ACE Health Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 2016 committed to bridging, collaborating, and levelling up entrepreneurs & leaders.
The Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE) is a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that seeks to address the challenge of accountability and governance through a system-building approach across governments, markets and people. ISE was founded by Ashraf Ghani, future President of Afghanistan.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 5 April 2014, with a second round held on 14 June. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai was not eligible to run due to term limits. The registration period for presidential nominations was open from 16 September 2013 until 6 October 2013. A total of 27 candidates were confirmed to be running for office. However, on 22 October Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission disqualified 16 of the candidates, leaving only 11 in the race. By April 2014 three candidates gave up the race and decided to support some of the eight remaining candidates. Opinion polls showed Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani as the front-runners and indeed the results of the first round of the election had Abdullah in the lead and Ghani behind him. The second set of results came after the run-off on 14 June, two months after the first round. Preliminary results were expected on 2 July and the final result on 22 July. However, widespread accusations of fraud delayed these results. As a result, John Kerry, then United States Secretary of State, mediated the negotiations between the two final candidates, Ghani and Abdullah. After a series of negotiations and talks between Ghani, Abdullah and Kerry, the two candidates agreed to sign an Agreement to form a National Unity Government based on 50–50 power sharing. As a result of that political agreement, a separate position was created for Abdullah as Chief Executive. The National Unity Government's term ran out after the next Afghan presidential election was held in September 2019.
Emma Sky, OBE is a British commentator on conflict, reconciliation and stability, who has worked mainly in the Middle East. She served in Iraq as the political advisor to US General Ray Odierno and General David Petraeus during the surge. She is director of the International Leadership Center at Yale University, overseeing the Yale World Fellows Program and other initiatives. She is a Senior Fellow at Yale's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where she lectures on Middle East politics and global affairs.
Rosemary Anne DiCarlo is an American diplomat who has served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs since May 2018. She previously served as acting United States Ambassador to the United Nations following the resignation of Susan Rice to become the National Security Advisor.
Rula F. Saadah Ghani is a former first lady of Afghanistan and wife of former president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani.
Hamdullah Mohib is a Pashtun Afghan politician and former diplomat.
Adela Raz is an Afghan politician who was the last ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United States from July 2021 to February 2022. She was also the first woman to serve as Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations.
