Lecture Abstract:

 Discussing Terrorism and insurgency in South Asia for 2015, including:

– Development of the Afghan conflict in the next 12 months

– Impact of Pakistan Army’s operations on CT Landscape in AFPAK

– Implications for the presence of IS and Al-Qaeda in South Asia

– Internal fighting within militant groups in India and Pakistan, opposed to the country of IS and Al-Qaeda.

Speaker:

Mr. Omar Hamid is Head of Asia Pacific Country Risk at IHS. He specializes in terrorism risks in South Asia, specifically Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. He has also worked on Counter Party Risk Assessments in Myanmar, political risk in the mining sector in Mongolia, assessing violent risks in Thailand, analyzing the impact of China’s leadership transition on the business environment and scenario planning for escalation pathways in the South China Sea. His recent research has focused on elections in India and the implications of a BJP government there, growing divisions within Jihadist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the political dynamics of crime and terrorism in Karachi. Mr. Hamid has been featured on broadcast, digital and print media, including CNBC, BBC, Bloomberg, Channel News Asia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio France, and Reuters.com, AFP, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Metro, The Times, Times of India and USA Today, among others. Mr. Hamid’s degrees from U.K. universities include a Master of Science in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an LLM from the University College London and an LLB from the University of Kent. His first book, “The Prisoner,” was published in 2013 by Pan Macmillan.​