Arif Rafiq is president of Vizier Consulting, LLC, a political risk advisory company focused on the Middle East and South Asia, and editor of the explanatory news website Globely News.
He is also a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC.
Rafiq’s research interests include economic connectivity, great power competition, political reform, religious extremism, and terrorism in South Asia. He is the author of studies on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Sunni-Shia sectarian violence in Pakistan, and Pakistan’s polycrisis.
Rafiq has written for numerous publications, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Los Angeles Times, POLITICO Magazine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He is regularly quoted by major news outlets, including the Financial Times and The New York Times. And he has appeared on broadcast outlets such as Al Jazeera English, the BBC World Service, and WNYC radio.
Previously, Rafiq worked for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and leading public relations firms Burson-Marsteller and Ruder Finn. From 2011-13, he was listed by Foreign Policy as one of the top 100 foreign affairs commentators on Twitter. Rafiq received an MA in Arab Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.