Dr Zahid Shahab Ahmed

Dr Zahid Shahab Ahmed is an Associate Professor of Security and Strategic Studies at the UAE’s National Defence College, Abu Dhabi. He is also a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. During 2016 and 2023, he was a Senior Research Fellow at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization, Deakin University, Australia. During 2017-19, Dr Ahmed was a Non-Resident Research Fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy. During 2013-16, he was an Assistant Professor at the Centre for International Peace and Stability, National University of Sciences and Technology in Pakistan. He specializes in peace and conflict studies, and his research focuses on peace and security in South Asia and the Middle East. He has worked extensively in leading journals, such as Politics and Religion, Democratization, Asian Studies Review, and Territory, Politics, Governance. He is the author of Regionalism and Regional Security in South Asia: The Role of SAARC (Routledge, 2013) and the lead author of Iran’s Soft Power in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).