
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (19 May 1949-) was the President of Afghanistan from 29 September 2014 to 15 August 2021, succeeding Hamid Karzai and preceding Abdul Ghani Baradar. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004, and was rated the second-smartest intellectual on the planet in 2005, behind anarchist Noah Chomsky. However, his government was unable to prevent the Taliban from returning to power upon the withdrawal of United States troosp from the Afghanistan War in 2021, and, as the Afghan capital of Kabul fell to the Taliban on 15 August 2021, Ghani fled the country.
Biography[]
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was born to the Ahmadzai clan of the Pashtun people in Logar Province, Afghanistan, in 1949. He studied anthropology in the American University in Beirut in Lebanon and in Columbia University, and he was stranded in the United States after the Soviet-Afghan War's start in 1978. Most of the members of his clan were arrested, so he taught at the University of California in Berkely and Johns Hopkins University. In 1991, he joined the World Bank and became a politician of the new Afghanistan following the deposition of the Taliban in 2001.
After serving as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004, Ghani ran for the title of President of Afghanistan in 2014 against Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. After a controversial first election, the votes were run again, and Ghani was elected as the new president. On 21 September 2014, he signed a deal with Abdullah which created a unity government and a power-sharing arrangement. Ghani became President, while Abdullah became Prime Minister (as "Chief Executive Officer"). Ghani was re-elected in 2019, and Abdullah again challenged the results, leading to Ghani abolishing the office of CEO in 2020. In 2021, as US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban launched a new offensive in the north, which soon spread to the rest of the country. The Afghan National Army collapsed due to mass desertions and demoralization, and over a dozen provincial capitals fell within the first week of August alone. On 15 August, as the Taliban entered Kabul, Ghani chose to flee the country, claiming that he had done so in order to avoid bloodshed.