Early History and Personal Life
Khalilzad was born in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan to a Sunni Pashtun father. His parents originated from Laghman Province of Afghanistan, and the family moved to Mazar-i-Sharif when his father was a government official under the monarchy of Mohammed Zahir Shah. Khalilzad is fluent in English, Pashto, Dari (Persian) and Arabic languages.
Khalilzad began his education at the public Ghazi Lycée school in Kabul. He first spent time in the United States as a Ceres, California high school exchange student with AFS Intercultural Programs. Later, he attained his bachelor's and master's degrees from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Khalilzad received his PhD at the University of Chicago in The United States, where he studied closely with strategic thinker Albert Wohlstetter, a prominent nuclear deterrence thinker and strategist, who provided Zalmay with contacts in the government and with RAND.
Khalilzad is married to author and political analyst Cheryl Benard, whom he met in 1972 when they were both students at the American University of Beirut. They have two children, Alexander and Maximilian.
Read more about this topic: Khalilzad
Famous quotes containing the words early, history, personal and/or life:
“In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of our race “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost labour.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“When I was going through my transition of being famous, I tried to ask God why was I here? what was my purpose? Surely, it wasn’t just to win three gold medals. There has to be more to this life than that.”
—Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994)