Afghanistan Research Group is a non-profit policy and research organization dedicated to the study and development of Afghanistan. Its multifaceted work on Afghanistan’s politics, security, and development supports and promotes local knowledge production, brings local perspectives on national and international policy dialogues on Afghanistan to the fore, and develops indigenous and homegrown policy solutions to the country’s challenges. While focusing on local voices and perspectives, the organization brings professionals and scholars from and of Afghanistan in order to bridge the gap between local knowledge and external expertise. 

The primacy of the agency, ownership, and leadership of local intellectuals and actors in these efforts are the center of our work.  The structure and practice of global policy debates and knowledge production on Afghanistan remain largely external, where little attention is paid to diverse local actors, voices, and perspectives. By centering home-grown expertise, the Afghanistan Research Group aims to address a fundamental gap in the global research and policy conversations on Afghanistan. This, we believe, is of paramount significance to a more inclusive, contextualized, and better-informed policy-making that is sensitive to the local context, perspectives, and experiences. Such an approach is equally empowering for the local actors as well as for the intellectuals, researchers, and experts in exile through an organic relationship of mutual learning, exchange, knowledge production, and mobilization.