His initial exposure to the subject was through a book by Ismail al-Azhari, Sudan's then and first Prime Minister.
Ismail later studied political science at university, reading Austin Ranney's The Governing of Men for a freshman class.
[2] He also served as a longtime United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) officer centered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[3] In 2009, Ismail was a guest speaker at the Puntland Diaspora Conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
[2] He recommends therein incorporating elements of the traditional Somali customary law (Xeer) into modern government structures.