Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on April 27, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Azeem Ibrahim. Moderated by Justin Burke.
Central Asian states over the past six months have stepped up effort to expand trade and connectivity with Afghanistan and Pakistan, aiming to gain access to a seaport. Connecting Central and South Asia arguably creates the most practical way to enact the Trump administration’s agenda on gaining access to Central Asia’s critical minerals. Azeem Ibrahim will discuss recent developments and show how they fit into a diplomatic initiative called the Silk Seven-plus (S7+). At its core, S7+ reflects a growing recognition that Central Asia sits at the crossroads of global competition — home to vast reserves of critical minerals, key transit routes between East and West, and significant untapped economic potential. The initiative focuses on strengthening regional cooperation to address shared challenges including water scarcity, energy deficits, and limited market access, while building new trade corridors connecting the region to Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific.
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, OBE, is the Senior Director of Special Initiatives at the New Lines Institute, based in Washington, D.C. He is also an Adjunct Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, and a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine. He completed his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and served as an International Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a World Fellow at Yale. Dr. Ibrahim is also the author of “Radical Origins: Why We Are Losing The Battle Against Islamic Extremism” (Pegasus New York), and “Authoritarian Century: Omens of a Post-Liberal Future” (Hurst 2022).
