Ali Ahsan is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at West Virginia University. After doing his BSc at the University of Manchester (UK), he worked in the private sector for a few years before a keen interest in current affairs brought him to do an MPhil in International Relations at the National Defence University in Islamabad, Pakistan. He subsequently worked as an analyst in Pakistan's Ministry of Defence and has also taught in the Department of International Relations at Bahauddin Zakariya University in his native city of Multan. His research interests include national security policy and geopolitics. In his spare time, he is a keen follower of soccer in Pakistan and has written about the sport in numerous publications.