Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is an academic focusing on the political economy of China-Indonesia-Middle East trilateral relations.
He is presently affiliated with the Jakarta-based Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, the London School of Economics' IDEAS, Center of Economics and Law Studies, and Korea Institute for ASEAN Studies at Busan University of Foreign Studies.
Previously, Zulfikar was a visiting professor at Bina Nusantara University and Universitas Paramadina.
Besides carrying out consulting work for various organisations, including Oxfam, Wikistrat, Gulf State Analytics, Freedom House, Indonesia's Ministry of Finance, Grapevine Asia Partners, Doublethink Lab, Dialectica, among others, he is also regularly quoted in major leading newspapers, including New York Times, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia Review, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, Radio Free Asia, and others.
Zulfikar received the 'Outstanding Research' award from Qatar National Research Fund in 2015 and the 'Most Productive Author' award from The Conversation Indonesia in 2020 and 2022.
The Most Productive Author 2020 (The Conversation Indonesia)