Hameed Hakimi is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. He has over a decade of experience in policy advice, research and analysis, and project management. His research is focused, among others, on the politics and society of Afghanistan and Pakistan, regional connectivity between South and Central Asia regions, securitization policies, migration and displacements, Islamist militancy and extremism.

Throughout his work, Hakimi has designed projects that combine rigorous methodologies, innovative practices to address policy issues, and multidimensional approaches that draw on the importance of grassroots engagement in complex contexts. He has extensive experience in media interviews, has presented at high-level conferences and events, briefed governments and senior officials, and has published for policy and academia. His policy paper on the drivers of migration to Europe (published 2016) contributed to the findings that were presented to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, at the Vision Europe Summit 2016 in Lisbon.

Hakimi is a member of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge where his interdisciplinary doctoral research examines the reconceptualization of Security and the securitization of migration in Europe. He obtained his MSc in International Security and Global Governance from Birkbeck College, University of London, his BA in Politics (with honors) from Queen Mary University of London, and qualification in research methodologies from the University of Birmingham. He has native fluency in English, Pashto, Dari/Persian languages, and is proficient in Urdu/Hindi with elementary skills in the Arabic language. He is also an associate fellow of the Asia-Pacific Programme and Europe Programme at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London.  

Recently, he was a specialist adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee (UK Parliament). He previously worked as a researcher at several institutions including the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).  Between 2014 and 2015, Hakimi was an international advisor for policy and capacity development working under a USAID-funded program in Kabul to support international efforts during Afghanistan’s political transition.

Hakimi was a speaker at the TEDx Oxford conference in March 2018; his talk focused on the strains faced by youth as technology and socioeconomic pressures transform our societies, and the need to foster role models and ‘positive influencers’ to prepare our next generation for the challenges ahead.