Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed holds the position of Emeritus Professor at Stockholm University. He spent three years at ISAS as Visiting Senior Research Fellow from June 2007 to June 2008 and thereafter as Visiting Research Professor till June 2010. He also taught at the South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore from January 2009 to June 2010.

Professor Ahmed migrated to Sweden in 1973, where he worked as a research assistant at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) during 1976-77 and 1982-83, working on a project entitled 'Arms Trade in the Third World'. He defended his doctoral dissertation, 'The Concept of an Islamic State: An Analysis of the Ideological Controversy in Pakistan' in 1985.

Professor Ahmed is a member of the editorial advisory boards of Asian Ethnicity, Journal of Punjab Studies; South Asian History and Culture; IPRI Journal, Islamabad; and PIPS Research Journal of Conflict and Peace Studies, Islamabad.

Professor Ahmed completed a major enquiry on the partition of the Punjab in 1947, entitled The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy Through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts in June 2010. It is based on extensive interviews from both sides of the Punjab border. He is in the process of completing his new undertaking for ISAS – Is Pakistan a Garrison State?

Professor Ahmed writes a weekly column in the Pakistani English-language newspaper, The Daily Times.