Aisha Ahmad is a multiple award-winning International Security scholar specializing in international interventions, insurgencies, and complex civil wars. She is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, a Senior Fellow at Massey College, and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. She is the author of the multiple award-winning book Jihad & Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power (Oxford University Press, 2017), and the forthcoming edited volume Securing Canada’s Future: Vital Insights from Women Experts (University of Toronto Press, 2024). She 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. Dr. Ahmad is the 2024 winner of the International Security Studies Section Emerging Scholar Award, granted annually by the International Studies Association to a scholar who has made (through their body of publications) the most significant contribution to the field of security studies.