This paper presents the results of applying a new clustering algorithm in ad hoc networks. This algorithm is a centralized method and is designed on the basis of an imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA). This algorithm aims to find a minimum number of cluster-heads while satisfying two constraints, the connectivity and interference. This work is a part of an ongoing research to develop a distributed interference aware cluster-based channel allocation method. As a matter of fact, the results of the centralized method are required to provide an upper level for the performance of the distributed version. The suggested method is evaluated for several scenarios and compares the obtained results with the reported results of ant colony optimization-based methods. © 2014 IEEE.