Fouad Ajami, an expert on Middle East politics whose opinions were widely quoted during the Gulf War, has declined Harvard's offer of a lifetime appointment, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said yesterday.

Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a regular commentator for CBS News on Middle Eastern affairs, had been negotiating with Harvard since last spring.

Government Department Chair Robert O. Keohane said earlier this fall that Ajami was likely to accept an offer from the University. But yesterday Keohane said Ajami decided against moving, citing his reluctance to give up his work with CBS.

Keohane said that Ajami was unwilling to take on the heavy teaching and research load that the University requires. Ajami currently teaches only two graduate sections at Johns Hopkins.

"He would have less opportunity to be a commentator on television and to travel at will," Keohane said. "Harvard makes substantive demands of its faculty...He had to make a choice between two ways to live his life."

Knowles said that he was disappointed with Ajami's decision to remain at Johns Hopkins.

"I tried to get him to delay his decision. He was saying 'no,' and I tried to say 'I won't accept it,'" Knowles said. "But sadly he said no."

Knowles said Ajami informed him of the his decision early this month, prior to Ajami's trip to cover the Mideast peace talks in Madrid for CBS.

"I belive he would have been a marvelous addition, but I believe he may have worried about necessary restraints of being a professor at Harvard," Knowles said.

Ajami could not be reached at his New York residence yesterday.

Citizenship Problem

Ajami's decision comes at a time when an unusual amount of attention is being focused on the amount of time high-profile scholars spend away from Harvard.

After the offer was extended to Ajami, some scholars speculated that he might spend more time shuttling between Washington, D.C. and Cambridge rather than concentrating on research and teaching.

Last spring, the Corporation requested that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences create a more formalized way of keeping track of its members' commitments outside Harvard.

Discussion of the larger issue of faculty "citizenship" has blossomed at the University since the recent release of the annual report of former acting Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky.