umar zafar
email

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Open for Work - CV

I study how
technical systems
become political
institutions.

I connect research, writing, and field-built tools to explain where infrastructure, law, and human institutions start shaping one another.

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Johns Hopkins SAISUS SNF Agora InstituteUS CAIDPpolicy clinic Mercatus CenterBastiat Fellow BASI BASIAI policy Daadras FoundationPakistan SALAM Project SalamPakistan PFP Davis Projects for Peacegrant The NationPakistan SAIS Observerwriting Forman Christian CollegePakistan PEEF PEEFMerit-cum-Need Scholar PSF Public Service FellowJohns Hopkins SAIS TR Telophase Risk Advisoryanalysis

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Projects

Public-interest systems built to make power, evidence, and community work more legible.

Daadras Foundation mark
field institution

Daadras Foundation

Education, relief, digital literacy, and community programming built from local trust in Pakistan.

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Low, moody street-facing frame with layered architectural texture
peacebuilding

Davis Projects for Peace

A theatre and dialogue intervention for Pashtun and Punjabi youth, designed around role reversal and public performance.

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Rock to Rack mining stage and semiconductor supply-chain interface
interactive system

Rock to Rack

A browser game that turns the semiconductor supply chain into playable decisions, from mining to powering a data center.

read build story

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Writings

Essays on political economy, language, technology, and the contradictions institutions prefer to hide.

Blue and white architectural scene with quiet urban geometry
AI economy

Tokenmaxxer

A proposal for the corporate AI economy and the token logic shaping institutional work.

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Low, moody street-facing frame with layered architectural texture
language

Wholesale Production of English

What language the future will carry, and who gets flattened when English becomes infrastructure.

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Quiet interior study with layered light and texture
political theory

Philosopher Broz; Tech Kings

A riff on Plato, power, and whether the tech king is a bad answer or a new problem.

read piece

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Ongoing projects

Current research and build work across AI governance, lobbying evidence, and geopolitical risk.

Policy systems map linking institutions, infrastructure, and governance
AI export controls / thesis

The Epistemic Global City

Research on corporate co-securitization in AI export controls and how firms help produce security logic.

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Impact systems map showing linked evidence and public institutions
research tool

RDL Evidence Map

A strict Python pipeline and public evidence surface tracing lobbying, funding, and revolving-door relationships.

view case study
Rock to Rack fabrication stage with semiconductor process stations
AI and geopolitics

Sovereign intelligence systems

Ongoing policy work on compute governance, semiconductor strategy, sovereign AI, and institutional resilience.

explore writing

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Open for work

Send a note if you need clear analysis, a working prototype, or a sharper way to explain institutional risk around AI and geopolitical change.

mumerzafer@gmail.com