AISS is honored and welcomes Dr. David Sedney, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan-Pakistan and Central Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and Professor Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, Head of specialized program on Human Security at the Master’s of Public Affairs (MPA) at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris, to its Board of Advisers.

Professor Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, serves as consultant for the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia on implementing the Global UN Counter Terrorism Strategy among the countries of Central Asia, and as Research Associate with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) on a study on regional security complexes around Afghanistan. She is the author of numerous books and articles human security, Afghanistan, Central Asia human development and peacebuilding. She has taught at Sciences Po, at Columbia University in New York, and at universities in Kabul, New Delhi, Pretoria, Moscow and Dushanbe. She was a staff member of the United Nations Development Program between 1993-2003. Tadjbakhsh holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University (1987) a Master’s Degree (1991) and a Doctoral Degree (1994) from Columbia University.

Previously Mr. Sedney was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2003-2004, where he was Charge d’Affaires from August through November 2003. Mr. Sedney was also Deputy Chief of Mission in Kabul in 2002, after the re-opening of the Embassy. Mr. Sedney was Director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council (2003), Senior Advisor in the State Department’s Office of e-Diplomacy (2002), Senior Advisor to John Negroponte, United States Ambassador to the United Nations (2001-2002), Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs (1999-2001), and Special Assistant to Stephen Sestanovich, Ambassador-at-Large and Special Representative for the Newly Independent States (1997-1998). Mr. Sedney is a graduate of Princeton University and Suffolk University School of Law. He attended Louisiana State University’s School of Law where he studied Law of the Sea and International Law.

Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) would like to appreciate contributions of Mr. Ashley J. Tellis and Mr. Hekmat Ceten whose terms of membership in AISS’s Board of Advisers has been expired. Their commitment to professionalism and perseverance were remarkable and inspired all of us at AISS

Please click HERE to see AISS’s Board of Advisors