Prior to joining the Afghan government, Jalali lived with his family in suburban Maryland. His family remains there, and his children continue to attend Prince George's County schools.
Jalali, a former employee of the U.S. government, is a longtime student of military organization. He was for several years a top military planner with the Afghan resistance against the Soviets. He has written extensively about the Afghan military for scholarly journals and the mass media, in addition to reporting on Afghanistan and Central Asia for VOA for almost two decades.
Jalali wrote an influential critique in the spring of 2002 of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan, arguing that the way the United States used local chieftains in the war on terrorism "enhanced the power of the warlords and encouraged them to defy the central authorities." He later softened his criticism but pointed out that local militias still play a significant role in working with the U.S. military.