M. Ashraf Haidari served as the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, and concurrently served as the Director-General of the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP) from 2018-2022. He was the Director-General of Policy and Strategy of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan from 2015-2018. Prior to this, he served as Afghanistan’s Deputy Chief of Mission (Minister Counselor) to India for three years, before which he was Afghanistan’s Deputy Assistant National Security Advisor for Policy and Oversight. Haidari also served more than two terms at the Embassy of Afghanistan in the United States in various capacities including: Chargé d’Affaires, Deputy Chief of Mission, Political Counselor, and Acting Defense Attaché. Haidari is a writer and TV and radio commentator on Afghanistan, regional and international affairs. He has held senior research and visiting fellowship positions at major international think-tanks, including the Institute of National Security Studies of Sri Lanka (INSSSL), the New America (NA), the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS), the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Delhi Policy Group (DPG). He holds a Master of Arts in Security Studies (International Security and Development) from the Georgetown University Foreign School of Service (SFS) in Washington-DC, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from Wabash College in Indiana. During 2002-2003, Haidari was a SFS Fellow in Foreign Service and obtained the graduate certificate in Refugees, Migration, and Humanitarian Emergencies from the Institute for the Study of International Migration. Since 2023, Haidari has taught at the SFS on an adjunct basis, and is a World in 2050 Senior Fellow at the Diplomatic Courier. Haidari is the recipient of several awards, includingthe 2021 Roots of Peace Global Citizen Award “for humanitarian diplomacy, helping promote peace and prosperity through revitalization of agriculture and agribusiness in war-torn countries from Afghanistan to Vietnam.”