Omer Rafiq is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs. He currently serves as a senior director at C3 AI, where he partners with US and allied government leaders to harness artificial intelligence for operational innovation, faster decision cycles, and strengthened mission resilience across defense, intelligence, and critical infrastructure sectors. 

Rafiq is a former US Marine Corps infantry officer, having served across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. During his military career, he served in conventional, special operations, and interagency assignments—overseeing portfolios spanning security cooperation, crisis response, and counterterrorism. Following active duty, Rafiq joined Onebrief, an early-stage startup developing next-generation decision support tools to modernize how military leaders plan, collaborate, and brief in real time. He later served as senior advisor to the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, shaping policy at the intersection of technology, irregular warfare, and global competition.

Rafiq holds a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Center for Public Leadership fellow and a Pat Tillman scholar. He also earned a Master of Science in international relations from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Science from Worcester State University.