[citation needed] Mahler taught political science at the University of Vermont for 12 years, then moved to the University of Mississippi where he served as Chair of the Political Science Department.
In 1996 he was a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at which time he also served as a visiting scholar at the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs where he ran a workshop and authored a book titled Constitutionalism and Palestinian Constitutional Development.
Dr. Mahler was one of the co-founders of the Association for Israel Studies in the United States,[citation needed] and served as President of that group for a two-year period.
In addition to numerous speaking engagements in the United States, he has lectured in such foreign settings as Albania, Amsterdam, Beijing, Cardiff, Côte d'Ivoire, Jerusalem, Liberia, Mauritania, Mexico City, Minsk, Moldova, Moscow, Port-of-Spain, and Tel Aviv.
Mahler has had numerous grants to support his research over the years, including support from the U.S. Department of Education (two Fulbright grants), the U.S. Department of State, the Government of Canada, the Organization of American States, the Government of Israel, the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, and the U.S.S.R. Institute for the Study of the U.S. and Canada.