Dr. Farhat Asif is a seasoned international affairs policy researcher whose career — beginning in 2007 with a DGAP Summer School Fellowship at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin and an M.Phil. in Defence and Strategic Studies from Quaid-i-Azam University — now spans more than 19 years in foreign policy analysis, political risk assessment, public diplomacy and strategic communications. As Founder President of the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies (IPDS), which she established in Islamabad in June 2013 (its foundation stone laid by Prof. Johan Galtung, globally recognised as the Father of Peace Studies), and Group Chairperson of the Diplomatic Insight Group of Companies, she has built one of Pakistan's most recognised independent policy platforms. Her analytical work bridges South Asian security dynamics, Eurasian geopolitics and China's growing regional footprint, translating complex regional developments into actionable policy insight for governments, international organisations and diplomatic missions.
In 2009 she founded The Diplomatic Insight (TDI), Pakistan's premier public diplomacy magazine, which she continues to edit today, and since 2016 she has overseen the Journal of Peace and Diplomacy (JPD) — a Higher Education Commission of Pakistan-recognised (Y Category) peer-reviewed research journal. Under her leadership, IPDS has established the Pakistan–Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Friendship Forum and dedicated research centres for Belt and Road Initiative & China Studies, Central Asia & Eurasian Studies, SCO Studies, American Studies, European Studies, and Women, Peace & Leadership — and in 2026 launched the SCO Observatory, a free, sourced reference tracking the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's institutions and initiatives across its first 25 years.
She writes The Diplomatic Insight LinkedIn newsletter, with over 15,000 subscribers, and has built out Diplo TV, Women Insight Daily and Global Women Insight — a live digital interview series that has featured Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, Members of the European Parliament, senators and heads of state. In 2025 she was an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumna hosted by the US State Department, served as Business Outreach & Private Sector Engagement Consultant to the Asian Development Bank's CAREC Secretariat for the CAREC Business Forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, mobilising private-sector participation across all ten CAREC member countries, and sat on the “Bridging Continents” data-governance panel at the International Digital Security Forum in Vienna. In 2024 she travelled to Ashgabat to receive Turkmenistan's Magtymguly Pyragy Jubilee Medal in a cohort of honourees that included heads of state, and her book review of the Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry appeared in Place Branding and Public Diplomacy in 2025.
Recognised internationally through fellowships at Harvard Business School and INSEAD and honoured by the US State Department, UNDP, and the governments of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Dr. Asif holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Quaid-i-Azam University and brings a rare scholar-practitioner credibility to every engagement. She maintains a 23-year-old Quaid-i-Azam University Alumni Association network spanning bureaucrats, civil-society activists, ambassadors, vice chancellors and executives across Pakistan.
