Ali Yawar Adili is the former program coordinator of the Afghan Observatory initiative, which is a collaboration between Future Frontlines and the Fellows programs at New America.
Before joining New America, Adili worked with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) from 2016 onward. From December 2020 to September 2021, he served as AAN country director. In that role, he has conducted extensive research focused on elections and electoral system, political groups and coalitions in Afghanistan, the intra-Afghan peace talks, the government institutions, and the Taliban activities and internal political development in the Hazarajat region of Afghanistan. His publications are available here.
Prior to AAN, he worked with the UNDP-ELECT Project (2014-16) and as an international member of staff with UNHCR in Baghdad, Iraq (2012-14). Adili has worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)-Afghanistan (2007-12) and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (2006-07). He also contributed as a columnist and political analyst to various Afghan daily newspapers, including Daily Outlook Afghanistan and Daily Open Society.
Adili obtained his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Kateb University in Kabul in 2011 and defended his dissertation comparing identity politics in Afghanistan and Iraq for a master’s degree in international relations at Ibn-e Sina University, Kabul in March 2020. Adili speaks Dari, English, and Urdu.