Experts

Twitter Envelope Linkedin

Irfan Yar

Founder

Irfan Yar is the founder and former managing director of the Afghanistan Security Institute (ASI). He has worked with the World Food Programme in Italy, the Global Counterterrorism Institute (USA) as a lecturer, the Macdonald Laurier Institute, the Embassy of Afghanistan (Ottawa), the Observer Research Foundation, and Carnegie India. Irfan holds two master’s degrees—an MA in Areas Studies and an MA in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (Ottawa). He completed his BA. Honors in Political Science. His area of interest focuses on Afghanistan, terrorism, and radicalism. His latest peer-reviewed article is “How the Taliban mobilized popular support to survive the US war in Afghanistan”. He has frequently published many papers and has written columns in many national and international outlets, including The Hill Times, The National Post, The Toronto Sun, The Mint, The Epoch Times, The Diplomat Magazines, and elsewhere. Irfan speaks Pashto, English, Dari/Persian, Urdu/Hindi, basic German, and Arabic. Disclaimer:  Irfan’s views from ASI-address do not reflect the  policy or position of any other organization he may be associated with.. Email: Irfanyar@afgsecurity.org  Irfan.yar1@gmail.com

Twitter Envelope Linkedin

Anthony A. Spadaro

Member of the Advisory Board

Sergeant Major (Retired), USMC

Former Command Senior Enlisted Leader, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command: Anthony Spadaro is a retired United States Marine Corps senior noncommissioned officer (Sergeant Major) who has a distinguished 35-year military career. During his service, Anthony served at the most senior levels for the Marine Corps and Department of Defense. He culminated his service to our Nation as the Command Senior Enlisted Leader for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the largest geographic combatant command with 380,000 uniformed (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines), and civilian members along with 36 partner nations.  In this role, he provided the commander with the enlisted perspective on theater security cooperation, encouraging peaceful development, responding to contingencies, and deterring aggression throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

Though recently retired from the Marine Corps, Anthony’s next chapter has him serving as a consultant and strategist with the following companies/organizations: Vice President, Director of Development & Special Projects, The Robert Irvine Foundation and BeaverFit USA. Additionally, he serves on the advisory boards for: the Asia-Pacific Security Innovation Forum (APSI), Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, FourBlock.org, FitOps, the Youth Impact Program, Our Community Salutes, USA, Roberts-Ryan Investments, Inc and the Afghanistan Security Institute. Furthermore, he is the Vice President for Training, 5th Principle LLC; a leadership coach with the Resilience Building Leader Program and an Adjunct Faculty member with the Marine Corps University. Anthony owns his own consulting firm, Gravitas Leadership Solutions, LLC. He continues to focus his attention on empowering and assisting military members, veterans, and their families.

Twitter Envelope

Dr. Nazir A. Yusufi

Research Fellow

Dr. Nazir Ahmad Yosufi is a Research Fellow at ASI. His area of research focuses on  EU-Afghanistan relations. He completed his Ph.D. degree in International Relations from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research focused on European Development Assistance in Afghanistan with Special Reference to Germany, 2002-2017”. He also holds an MBA and BBA degrees. Dr. Yusufi has published several books, chapters, and research papers on issues related to Afghanistan. He also serves as  the Representative of Afghan Youth to Asia, Youth High Council, Kabul, Afghanistan. He has worked at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in New Delhi; He speaks Dari, Pashto, Hindi, English and Balochi languages. Some of his recent publications include;

  1. Role of the EU in Development Assistance in Afghanistan Since the Fall of Taliban, International Journal of South Asian Studies
  2. Foreign Development Assistance in Afghanistan: A Critical Analysis, 2001-2018, Journal of Himalayan and Central Asian Studies,
  3. Cultural Diversity in Afghanistan, Journal of South Asian Fraternity (SAF)
  4. European Development Assistance in Afghanistan: A case study of Germany, (1919 – 2019), Under editing
  5. Book chapter titled, “The Role of US and Russia in Post-War Afghanistan: Fighting or Supporting Taliban?”