In 1991, Ghani became Lead Anthropologist at the World Bank.

In 1985, he completed a year of fieldwork researching Pakistani madrassas as a Fulbright Scholar. His academic research was on state-building and social transformation. In 1983, after receiving his PhD, he taught briefly at University of California, Berkeley, and then at Johns Hopkins University as an associate professor from 1983 to 1991. Career before returning to Afghanistan (1983–2001) Academic career (1983–1991) Arensberg, Richard Bulliet, Morton Fried, and Robert F. His doctoral thesis was titled 'Production and domination: Afghanistan, 1747–1901'. He stayed at Columbia and received a PhD in cultural anthropology in 1983. While Ghani originally intended to stay for two years, the outbreak of the 1978 Saur Revolution led to much of his male family being imprisoned. In 1977, he received a Master's in cultural anthropology from Columbia University on a government scholarship. From 1973 to 1977, Ghani served on the faculty of Kabul University and Aarhus University in Denmark in 1977. In 1973, he received a Bachelor of Arts in political studies from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. The American Field Service sponsored his foreign exchange stay. But for the 1966–1967 school year, Ghani studied as a foreign exchange student at Lake Oswego High School (LOHS) in Lake Oswego, Oregon under the name Ashraf Ahmad. He attended secondary-level schooling in Kabul. Ghani's grade-school education was mostly done in Afghanistan. He belongs to the Ahmadzai Pashtun tribe. Ghani was born on in the Logar Province in the Kingdom of Afghanistan to Shah Pesand, a clerk worker, and Kawbaba Lodin, who hailed from Kandahar. He later stated he left in order to avoid further violence, and that staying and dying would have accomplished nothing but adding another tragedy to Afghanistan's history. Ghani and staff fled Afghanistan and took refuge in the United Arab Emirates. On 15 August 2021, his term ended abruptly, as the Taliban took over Kabul. He was also criticized for being aloof and short-tempered, including being in denial during the Taliban's offensive in 2021. His position was also weakened by political rivalries, his attempt to lessen the power of ex- warlords, and an uneasy relationship with the United States regarding the war. However many of his promises, such as fighting corruption and turning the country into a trade hub between central and south Asia, were left unfulfilled. Ghani made efforts to make peace with Taliban insurgents and improving relations with Pakistan. His cabinets were relatively young and well-educated. He aimed to transform Afghanistan into a technocratic state, winning him support from youth and urban demographics.

As president, Ghani was known for his intensity and energetic speeches. On 18 February 2020, Ghani was re-elected after a delayed result from the 2019 presidential elections. Ghani became president and Abdullah chief executive, with power split 50-50. The election was so disputed that negotiations between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah were mediated by the United States. In 2014, Ghani became president after winning the controversial 2014 Afghan presidential election. In 2009, Ghani ran in the 2009 Afghan presidential election but came in fourth. He resigned in December 2004 to become the dean of Kabul University. He then served as finance minister in Hamid Karzai's cabinet. In December 2001, he returned to Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban government. For much of the 1990s, he worked at the World Bank. After receiving his PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University in 1983, he taught at various institutions and was an associate professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. After his grade-school education in Afghanistan, he spent much of his time abroad, studying in Lebanon and the United States. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born ) is an Afghan former politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.

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