Nihat Ali Özcan received his Bachelors degree from the Military Academy/Ankara and Istanbul University Faculty of Law. Özcan holds a Master and Ph Degree from 9 Eylül University with his dissertation on PKK.

Özcan voluntarily retired from Turkish Armed Forces as a Major. After practicing as a lawyer for a short while, Özcan worked on "Terrorism" and "Middle East" issues in various research centers. Özcan thought several courses in 9 Eylül University Faculty of Law, Hacettepe University, Military Academy Institute for Defense Sciences, Institute for National Security, War Academies and TOBB University of Economics and Technology. Özcan also worked as Strategy Development Counselor in different institutions. Asymmetric war, insurgence, terrorism, Middle East and civil-military relations are among his research interests.

Nihat Ali Özcan works at TEPAV since 2005.