Dr. Arian Sharifi is a Lecturer and Chair of the Master in Public Policy Program at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

He came to Princeton with a decade and a half of high-level practical experience in Afghanistan and internationally, having served in multiple positions in the former Afghan government, notably as Director General of National Threat Assessment in the Office of National Security Council, as well as a Senior Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kabul. During his government service, Sharifi advised the President and senior members of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on national, regional, and global issues pertaining to Afghanistan’s national security, and was a major voice in the country’s foreign policy. He was the penholder for the drafting of over 20 national-level policies and strategies, including the National Threat Assessment, National Security Policy, National Counter-terrorism Strategy, National Countering Violent Extremism Strategy and others.

At the international level, Sharifi worked as an Analyst for the Combatting Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy at West Point, and as Operations Research Analyst for the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, covering issues of security and terrorism in the Central and Southern Asia Regions. He is fluent in Dari, Pashto, and English, and understands Urdu.