Ahmad Massoud (, ; born July 10, 1989) is an Afghan politician who is the founder and leader of the

National Resistance Front of Afghanistan The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) is a military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban fighters loyal to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Its founder and leader is Ahmad Massoud, who mobilized t ...

. He is the eldest son of prominent Afghan anti-Soviet military leader

Ahmad Shah Massoud Ahmad Shāh Massoud (2 September 19539 September 2001) was an Afghan militant leader and politician. He was a guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation during the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979 to 1989. In the 19 ...

, and was appointed as the CEO of the Massoud Foundation in November 2016. On 5 September 2019, he was declared his father's successor at his mausoleum in the Panjshir Valley. After the Taliban seized control of Panjshir Valley on 6 September 2021, Massoud evacuated towards

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

along with former

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Amrullah Saleh Amrullah Saleh (Pashto/, ; born 15 October 1972) is an Afghan politician who served as the Vice President of Afghanistan, first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021, and acting Ministry of Interior Affairs (Afghanist ...

. Massoud has since been leading the NRF operations from inside Tajikistan and participated in the Vienna conferences in working towards a democratic state in Afghanistan. The meetings brought together leading Afghan anti-Taliban figures, women's rights activists, and civil society representatives.

Early life and education

Ahmad Massoud was born into a Tajik family in 1989. He is the only son and the oldest of Ahmad Shah Massoud's six children. After attending high school in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, Massoud trained at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

. In 2012, he commenced an undergraduate degree in

war studies War studies, sometimes called polemology, is the multi-disciplinary study of war. It pertains to the military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfa ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 2015. He obtained his master's degree in international politics from

City, University of London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" an ...

in 2016. His undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation topics were the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

Career

Massoud returned to Afghanistan and was appointed CEO of the Massoud Foundation in 2016. Since March 2019, Massoud has officially entered politics, a widely anticipated move for one referred to in Panjshir as the "predestined." He has endorsed his father's idea of a Swiss model for internal power relations in Afghanistan, saying that the

decentralization Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

of government and the de-concentration of power from

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

would give a more efficient allocation of resources and authority to provinces in the country, thereby bringing prosperity and stability to the country as a whole. Massoud objected to the direction of the

Afghan peace process Peace processes have taken place during several phases of the Afghanistan conflict, which has lasted since the 1978 Saur Revolution. The National Reconciliation Policy during the Karmal and Najibullah governments from the mid-1980s to 1992 ...

in 2019, which he believed did not represent the interests of all Afghans. In September of that year, he announced the creation of a new coalition of

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

leaders modeled on the

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance ( ''Da Šumāl E'tilāf'' or ''Ettehād Šumāl''), officially known as the United National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( ''Jabha-ye Muttahid-e barāye Afğānistān''), was a military alliance of groups that op ...

that had resisted the Taliban in the 1990s. The coalition, known as the Second Resistance or

, became one of several independent military forces built up ahead of the United States military withdrawal. After most of the country surrendered to the Taliban during its 2021 offensive, Massoud and former Vice President

met in Panjshir and declared their rejection of Taliban rule. Massoud appealed in the American press for military and logistical support for his forces. Among other reasons, he listed the need to protect women's rights, prevent public executions, and avoid the return of a safe haven in Afghanistan for international terrorists. On 22 August 2021, he warned of a potential civil war if a power-sharing agreement was not reached and said that war was "unavoidable" under those circumstances, saying "We defeated the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, we can defeat the Taliban". He has founded the

(NRF) which has thousands of fighters. Massoud has asked the U.S., France and others in Europe and the Arab world to support the NRF. He has also stated his desire to negotiate with the Taliban, but that if talks fail he is ready for a military confrontation. On 6 September 2021, with the Taliban taking control of the Panjshir Valley, Massoud moved to an unknown location and said the resistance will continue. On 9 September, Massoud's spokesman

Ali Maisam Nazary Ali Maisam Nazary (, born 1990) is an Afghan politician; since August 2021, he has been Head of Foreign Relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF). Education Ali Nazary is an alumnus of the University of California, Los A ...

stated that both Massoud and acting Islamic Republic of Afghanistan President Amrullah Saleh were "safe" and still in Afghanistan. Nazary also disputed reports that the Taliban had full control of the Province, stating that 60% was still under National Resistance Front control, and stated that NRF forces made a "tactical withdrawal" from some areas. On 8 September French intellectual

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Georges Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, politi ...

shared a photo of himself talking to Massoud in Panjshir in 2020 on his Twitter page and also disputed the reports of the Taliban taking full control of the province. Massoud has since been leading the NRF operations from inside Tajikstan and participated in the Vienna conferences in working towards "a democratic Afghanistan". The meetings brought together leading Afghan anti-Taliban figures, women's rights activists, and civil society representatives.

Publications and recordings

Books

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Articles

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Recordings

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Massoud, Ahmad 1989 births Living people Afghan Tajik people Afghan Muslims Afghan democracy activists Tajik politicians Politicians of Panjshir Province Alumni of King's College London Alumni of City, University of London Afghan anti-communists Critics of Islamism