After retiring from the Navy, Blair held the "John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies" at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), and the "General of the Army Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership" at Dickinson College and the U.S. Army War College. He served as President of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) from 2003 to 2007, a U.S. government think tank in the Washington, D.C. area focused on national security. He was also Deputy Executive Director of the Project on National Security Reform.