Dr. Ahrari was Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Paradigms, a consultancy specializing in defense issues, located in Alexandria, Virginia, from April 2005 to December 2006.  He served as Professor of National Security and Strategy at the National Defense University’s Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, from March 1994 to April 2005, and as Professor of West Asian Studies at the U.S. Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, from July 1990 to March 1994.

     As a U.S. Central Command specialist, Dr. Ahrari has traveled extensively in the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, and has lectured at a number of leading “think tanks” in the region.  He was a regular lecturer at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization School in Oberammergau, Germany, on such topics as Islam and Democracy in the Middle East, Nation Building in Iraq, and the need for Ijtihad in the World of Islam.  He has been a frequent guest speaker at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and a regular lecturer for the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Civil-Military Relations. 

     Dr. Ahrari has given lectures on transnational terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and radical Islam to the Pentagon’s Joint Staff (J5); as well as at NATO Headquarters in Mons, Belgium; the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, India; the Institute for Defence and Security Studies, Singapore; the Center for Excellence-Defense Against Terrorism, at the Turkish Army High Command, Ankara, Turkey; and the Emirates Center for Security Studies, United Arab Emirates.  Additionally, he has appeared on CNN, Fox News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Hampton Roads Public Broadcasting Channel, as well as in radio interviews on numerous national and international radio stations including National Public Radio.