He was president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, D.C., a professor at American University,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

[10] He also went beyond criticism of the status quo to advocate for specific ways to address the abuses of the past and present; specifically he called for democratic government, debt reexamination, modernized infrastructure, free market economics, and free trade to promote development.

In 1988 and 1989, he held a National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution, and then joined The Heritage Foundation as a Bradley Resident Scholar.

[9] Ayittey served on the advisory board of Students for Liberty and also worked closely with the Atlas Network.

[11] In 2008, Ayittey was listed by Foreign Policy as one of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" who "are shaping the tenor of our time.