Qayoom Suroush is a formerAfghanistan Observatory Scholar at New America. He worked with various research organizations for more than a decade in Afghanistan before he immigrated to Ireland after the collapse of the former Afghan government. In particular, he worked with the Center of Civilians in Conflict, Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, and Afghanistan Analysts Network. In his role with these organizations, he engaged in defining project priorities, implementing the project's goals in a conflict-effect context, and producing research reports, policy briefs, and donor reports. As an on-the-ground researcher with these organizations, he has published numerous articles and research papers on peace economies, police reform, drivers of the conflict, elections, infrastructures, and civilian casualties.
Suroush also worked as a senior research advisor with the Office of National Security Council under the former government of Afghanistan for about two years. In this role, he identified and researched about security trends in the country, prepared the daily security updates for the president, and produced weekly security analyses for the National Security Council's meetings.
Suroush holds an MA in security and politics in central Asia from the OSCE Academy and BA in sociology and philosophy from Kabul University.
Suroush’s project with the Afghanistan Observatory is to explore the political economy of the Afghan conflict where he seeks to answer the question of how the political economy of the conflict has perpetuated the war in Afghanistan. His research will examine why and how war economies perpetuated the Afghan conflict from 2018 to 2020 in Helmand province? Who are the actors and networks that economically benefit from war economies? In what ways do these actors and networks economically benefit from the perpetuation of conflict at the local level, and what kind of peace agreement will they be likely to support?