Hassan Abbas is Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Strategic Studies Centre (NESA), at the National Defense University in Washington DC. He also serves as a senior advisor at Harvard University’s Program on Shiism and Global Affairs at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. 

Earlier he served as professor and department chair at National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs (2011-2019) and as the Distinguished Quaid i Azam Professor at Columbia University (2009-2011). 

He held various fellowships including at Harvard Law School’s Islamic Legal Studies Program & Program on Negotiation  (2002-04); the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government  (2005-09); Asia Society in New York as Bernard Schwartz fellow (2009-2011); and as a Carnegie fellow at the New America Foundation (2016-2018). 

He holds a PhD & MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, an LLM in International Law from the Nottingham University, UK as a Britannia Chevening Scholar  and MA in Political Science from the Punjab University, Pakistan. 

He appeared on various television news shows on CNN, Fox News, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose Show, MSNBC (Abrams Report and Hardball), C-Span (Washington Journal) and various programs on CBS, and NBC as an analyst on security related issues in South Asia and Middle East. 

His earlier publications include Pakistan’s Nuclear Bomb: A Story of Defiance, Deterrence & Deviance (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Taliban Revival (Yale University Press, 2015) & Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America’s War on Terror (M.E.Sharpe & Routledge, 2005). He edited and authored various reports and monographs including The Myth and Reality of Iraq’s al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces): A Way Forward (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2017), ISIS Eyes Influence in Pakistan: Focus, Fears and Future Prospects (Jinnah Institute, Islamabad, 2014) and Stabilizing Pakistan through Police Reforms (Asia Society, 2011).