Dr Rodger Shanahan has MAs in International Relations and Middle East Studies from the Australian National University, and a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Sydney. He has been an Associate Professor at the National Security College and a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute. A former army officer, he had extensive service within the Parachute Battalion Group (PBG) and had operational service with the UN in South Lebanon and Syria, with the PBG in East Timor, in Beirut during the 2006 war, and in Afghanistan. He was the former director of the Army's Land Warfare Studies Centre, and has also been posted to the Australian Embassies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Dr Shanahan has also served two terms as a member of the Refugee Review/Administrative Appeals Tribunals.

Dr Shanahan has provided expert witness evidence in over 35 terrorism cases and more than 20 terrorism-related control or supervision order matters in Australia, as well as appearing as an expert witness in the Lindt Cafe coronial inquiry, the Antisemitism Royal Commission and before the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor. He travels to the Middle East regularly, has written numerous journal, media and policy articles, and is a frequent commentator on Middle East security and politics and Islamist terrorism issues for Australian and international media. He is the author of Clans, Parties and Clerics: the Shi’a of Lebanon, and Islamic State in Australia.