Dr. Zalmai Nishat

Zalmai Nishat is a policy expert, researcher, and development practitioner specializing in governance, migration, and geopolitical studies across South, Central, and West Asia. He is the Founder and Executive Chair of the Mosaic Global Foundation, a UK-registered charity focusing on Afghanistan and Central Asia, where he leads strategic initiatives in development, policy engagement, and regional cooperation.

He previously served as Programme Lead for Central and South Asia at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), where he worked on policy development and governance reform initiatives across the region. From 2014 to 2020, he served as a Senior Public Policy Advisor in the Government of Afghanistan, contributing to national policy formulation and institutional development.

Between 2020 and 2021, he worked as a Senior Migration Expert with the German Development Agency (GIZ) in Kabul, focusing on migration governance and development-linked mobility frameworks.

Mr. Nishat is also a researcher of modern state formation in Islamic contexts, with a strong academic interest in geopolitics, governance systems, and sustainable development in South, Central, and West Asia. He holds a BA in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and an MA in Political Theory from the University of Essex.