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Biography

Aisha Ahmad is a multiple award-winning International Security scholar specializing in international interventions, insurgencies, and complex civil wars. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, as well as a Senior Researcher at at the Munk School of Global Affairs, a Senior Fellow at Massey College, a Fellow at Trinity College, a former International Security Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. She is the winner of the 2024 International Studies Association’s ISSS Emerging Scholar Award, which recognizes scholars who have made (through their body of publications) the most significant contribution to the field of security studies.

With respect to her scholarship, Dr. Ahmad has published in leading journals and has won multiple prizes for her research. She is the author of Jihad & Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power (Oxford University Press, 2017), which was awarded both the distinguished 2017 Mershon Center Furniss Award for the best new book in international and national security and the 2018 Best Book in Comparative Politics Prize by the Canadian Political Science Association, and was listed as one of the 2018 Best Books in Foreign Affairs. Her article, “The Security Bazaar,” published in the flagship journal International Security, won the 2017 Best Security Article Award from the International Studies Association. Her recent article “The Long Jihad: The Boom-Bust Cycle Behind Jihadist Durability” was awarded Best Article in the Journal of Global Security Studies for 2021. She he has conducted fieldwork in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Mali, Iraq, and Lebanon, and has spent over a decade advising senior leaders in military, government, and international organizations on global security policy. She has also been “coined” by colonels and generals from multiple special branches of allied military and intelligence agencies.

With respect to her teaching in the field of International Security, Dr. Ahmad is the 2018 winner of the Northrop Frye Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to co-curricular learning and pedagogical innovation; this prize is awarded to one faculty member per year, across all three campuses, all disciplines, and academic ranks at the University of Toronto. She also won the 2018 University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus (UTSC) Assistant Professor Award for outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching at the Scarborough campus. In 2017, she was named one of Toronto’s “most inspiring women” of 2017 in Post City Magazine. In 2018, she was named the 2018 “Muslim Woman of the Year” at the Muslim Awards of Excellence MAX gala, which celebrates outstanding achievements by a Muslim Canadian in their field.

Research Interests

Her research interests include International Relations, Comparative Politics, state failure, political Islam, political economy, and peace building. Her work explores the political economy of Islamist power in weak and failed states. She has conducted fieldwork on conflict dynamics in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Mali, and Kenya. Her 2017 book with Oxford University Press, titled “Jihad & Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power”, explores the economic drivers of these complex security crises.

Awards and Grants

A decorated lecturer, Dr. Ahmad is also the 2018 winner of the Northrop Frye Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to co-curricular learning and pedagogical innovation, as well as the 2018 University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus (UTSC) Assistant Professor Award for outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching. In 2017, she was named one of Toronto’s “most inspiring women” of 2017 in Post City Magazine. In 2018, she was named the 2018 “Muslim Woman of the Year” at the Muslim Awards of Excellence (MAX) gala, which celebrates outstanding achievements by Muslim Canadians in their field. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Massey College and an Associate Fellow at Trinity College, and was formerly an International Security Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Publications

Scholarly Books:

Aisha Ahmad, Jihad & Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Journals Articles:

Aisha Ahmad “Canadian Values and the Muslim World” in International Journal: Canada’s Journal of Global Policy Analysis Vol. 72, No. 2 (Summer 2017)

Aisha Ahmad, “Going Global: Islamist Competition in Contemporary Civil Wars,” Security Studies, (Spring 2016), Vol. 25(2), pp. 353-384.

Aisha Ahmad, "The Security Bazaar: Business Interests and Islamist Power in Civil War Somalia," International Security, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Winter 2014/15), pp. 89-117. Winner of 2017 Best Security Article Award by the International Studies Association.

Aisha Ahmad, “Agenda for Peace or Budget for War? Evaluating the Economic Impact of International Intervention in Somalia” in International Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Spring 2012) pp. 313-331.

Book Chapters:

Aisha Ahmad, “Canada in Somalia: Learning from the Legacy of Failed Intervention” in Canada Among Nations (Centre for International Governance Innovation: Waterloo, ON), 2015.

Selected Conference Papers:
 
Aisha Ahmad, “Women as the War Front: Islam, Jihad, and the Politics of Intervention,” Canadian Political Science Association, Calgary, AB, June 2016.

Aisha Ahmad, “Female Bodies as the War Front in Jihadist Competitions,” International Studies Association, Atlanta, GA, March 2016.

Aisha Ahmad, “The Logic of Perpetual Crisis: State Weakness in International Politics,” International Studies Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, February 2015.

Aisha Ahmad “Financing Failure: International Interventions as Resource Curse in Conflict and Post-Conflict States” American Political Science Association: Chicago, MI, August 2013

Teaching Interests

• POLB80H3 - Introduction to International Relations
• POLC09H3 - International Security: Crisis, Conflict, and War
• POLC80H3 - International Relations of Africa
• POLD09H3 - International Relations of Ethnic Conflict