As Chair of the Advisory Council at the Centre for Transitional Peace, Dr Spanta offers strategic oversight and moral guidance rooted in both scholarship and frontline statecraft. Born in Herat in 1953, he completed his early education in Afghanistan before studying political science in Turkey and then in Germany, where he earned a PhD in Political Science from RWTH Aachen University. He spent many years teaching international relations at the same university and contributed extensively to academic and political literature on democratisation, development theory, and geopolitics.

Dr Spanta returned to Afghanistan to serve as Foreign Minister from 2006 to 2010 and later as National Security Advisor from 2010 to 2014. In both roles, he was a leading voice for Afghan-led governance, criticising both domestic corruption and regional interference. Since the fall of Kabul in 2021, he has continued his advocacy from exile in Germany, remaining an influential contributor to global discussions on transitional justice, accountability, and Afghan self-determination.

He speaks Persian, Pashto, German, English, and Turkish.