The White House President George W. Bush |
Print this document |
Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad
United States Ambassador to Iraq
Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad was
nominated Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of
America to Iraq by President Bush on April 5, 2005. Dr. Khalilzad was sworn in
on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 in Baghdad and presented his credentials to President
Talabani the same day.
Dr. Khalilzad served as Ambassador to Afghanistan
from November 2003 to June 2005, during which time he continued as the Special
Presidential Envoy to Afghanistan. For his service in Afghanistan Secretary
Rumsfeld awarded Dr. Khalilzad the Defense Department medal for outstanding
public service. President Karzai award him the King Ghazi Ammanullah Medal,
Afghanistan's highest medal. Earlier he served as Special Assistant to the
President and Senior Director for Islamic Outreach and Southwest Asia
Initiatives at the National Security Council. Prior to that, Dr. Khalilzad was
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southwest Asia, Near
East, and North African Affairs at the National Security Council. He was also a
Special Presidential Envoy and Ambassador at Large for the Free Iraqis. Dr.
Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Department of Defense
and has been a Counselor to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.
Between 1993
and 1999, Dr. Khalilzad was Director of the Strategy, Doctrine and Force
Structure program for RAND's Project Air Force. While with RAND, he founded the
Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Between 1991 and 1992, Dr. Khalilzad served
as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning. Secretary
Cheney awarded Dr. Khalilzad's the Department of Defense medal for outstanding
public service. He also served as a senior political scientist at RAND and an
associate professor at the University of California at San Diego in 1989 and
1991. From 1985 to 1989 at the Department of State, Dr. Khalilzad served as
Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs working
policy issues, advising on the Iran-Iraq war and the Soviet War in Afghanistan.
From 1979 to 1986, Dr. Khalilzad was an Assistant Professor of Political Science
at Columbia University.
Dr. Khalilzad received his bachelor's and
master's degree from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He went on to
earn a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Dr. Khalilzad is the author of more
than 200 books, articles, studies and reports. His work has been translated in
many languages including Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese and Turkish. He is
married and has two sons.