He served as associate director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the Clinton Administration.

In 1985 Rose was appointed assistant editor of The National Interest, a foreign policy quarterly.

[6] He served as associate director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the Clinton administration.

In 1996, he joined Princeton University's Politics Department as a lecturer on American foreign policy and then held a similar position at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, where he currently teaches as an adjunct professor in the department of political science.

[9] Rose left as editor in January 2021 and joined the Council on Foreign Relations' thinktank to write a book.