Vizier Consulting, LLC provides strategic guidance on Middle East and South Asian political and security issues. Our research products harness structured analytic techniques and cutting-edge, open source tradecraft to produce analysis that is accurate, clear, and textured. We offer a range of services, including custom political risk analysis, curriculum development, expert training, and strategic communications guidance.
President
Arif Rafiq is president of Vizier Consulting, LLC. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC.
Rafiq was a weekly columnist with Pakistan’s Express Tribune, a leading Pakistani English-language daily, and a Pakistan analyst on the nationally syndicated John Batchelor radio program.
A frequent contributor to print and web publications, he writes regularly for The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. Rafiq has contributed to the Christian Science Monitor, Daily Beast, and the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he worked for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and public relations firms Burson-Marsteller and Ruder Finn.
From 2011-13, Rafiq was listed by Foreign Policy as one of its top 100 foreign affairs commentators on Twitter. He received an MA in Arab Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.