Dr Zahid Shahab

Dr Zahid Shahab Ahmed | Non-Resident Fellow London Dialogue

Dr Zahid Shahab Ahmed is an Associate Professor in Security and Strategic Studies at the National Defense College of the United Arab Emirates. He previously held appointments as a Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University, Australia, and as an Assistant Professor at the Centre for International Peace and Stability, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. He is a prominent commentator on Pakistan’s domestic politics and foreign policy.

Dr Ahmed has been associated with several research institutions in Islamabad, including the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI). From 2017 to 2019, he was a Non-Resident Research Fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy. He serves as a board member of the International Peace Research Association Foundation and as Secretary of the South Asian Studies Association of Australia.

He holds a PhD in International Relations and Master’s degrees in Sociology and Peace Education. His publications include Regionalism and Regional Security in South Asia: The Role of SAARC (Routledge, 2013), and he writes regularly for outlets including The National Interest and Al Jazeera. His research interests span Pakistan’s domestic politics and foreign policy, South Asian geopolitics and regionalism, violent extremism and terrorism, and political Islam.