In "The Fate of Nonalignment," an essay in the Winter 1980/81 issue of the journal "Foreign Affairs", Ajami outlined how the third world has fared in a context of nonalignment in post Cold war politics. In 1980, he accepted an offer from Johns Hopkins University to become director of Middle East Studies at their international relations graduate program in Washington, D.C.: the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He holds an endowed chair as the Majid Khadduri professor.