Before joining Charles Sturt University, Cesar Alvarez worked for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a Canberra-based national security and defence think-tank. During his time at ASPI, he researched Australian and Latin American organised crime links, Colombian politics, and drug trafficking.

In Colombia, Cesar provided technical advice to the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and advised the Counter-Narcotics Directorate and the Doctrine and Planning Office of the National Police of Colombia.

He has worked for the United Nations combatting organised crime and terrorism.

Since March 2017, Cesar has been a Lecturer at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security (AGSPS), where he teaches postgraduate courses on Terrorism Financing and Resourcing, Transnational Organised Crime, Terrorism Communications and Propaganda, Illicit Networks and others.

Previously, he has taught at the Colombian Police Academy, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Universidad Javeriana, and Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Colombia.

Cesar holds a Master of Policing, Intelligence, and Counter-Terrorism, along with a Master of International Security Studies from Macquarie University. He also holds a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Externado University in Colombia.

Cesar is the co-founder and Director of the Australia-Colombia Dialogue, a public diplomacy organisation dedicated to promoting and advancing Australia-Colombia relations.

He is a frequent commentator for Australia’s SBS Radio in Spanish and writes a weekly column for Revista Alternativa in Colombia. His articles and interviews have been featured in The Australian, The Financial Review, The Canberra Times, The Outlook, The Strategist, El Tiempo, Portafolio, The ABC’s The World and The Drum, A Current Affair, 60 Minutes, Today Show, and CNN in Spanish.

His main research interests include the crime-terror nexus, mafia states, transnational organised crime, geopolitics, insurgent groups, and Australian-Latin American relations.

Cesar is alfo a fellow of the Innovation and Development Foundation (I+D), a think-and-do-thank founded by former President of Colombia, H.E. Iván Duque Márquez (2018-2022).