Prof. Dr. Mehmet ÖZKAN
Mehmet Özkan is Professor of International Relations at Joint War Institute at Turkish National Defence University in Istanbul. He previously taught at Turkish National Police Academy in Ankara; Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia; and International University of Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Dr. Özkan has extensive experience in academia, think-tanks and government where he worked as Executive Director of Maarif Foundation USA in New York (2018-2021) and founding Regional Director for Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in Colombia (2015-2018) and Director of International Center for Terrorism and Transnational Crime (UTSAM) in Turkey (2014-2015). He held fellowship positions at SETA Foundation in Ankara; Institute for Defence and Security Analysis (IDSA), New Delhi, India; Center for Global Policy in Washington DC, USA and Cairo University in Egypt.
He completed his Ph.D at Sevilla University (Spain), Master’s from Linkopings University (Sweden) and University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and BA from Istanbul University, all in International Relations. He is the author of several books, including Foreign Policy After Tahrir Revolution: (Re) Defining the Role of Egypt in the Middle East (2011) and Turkey's Involvement in Somalia: A State-Building in Progress (2014). He also published many articles in leading journals such as The Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal of International Development, Journal of Eastern African Studies, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Insight Turkey, Religions, Turkish Studies, Turkish Policy Quarterly and others. He wrote for Foreign Policy, Middle East Eye, Star-Açık Görüş, AA Analiz, and Kriter as well as contributed with commentaries to, among many others, CNN en Español, NTN24, TRT World, Russia Today, TRT Haber, HaberTürk, France24, CNN Turk, NTV, and Al-Jazeera Arabic.
His research focuses on religion and politics, Middle East, Horn of Africa, Latin American politics, South-South relations, radicalization, foreign policy of emerging powers, development, and more specifically Turkish foreign and domestic policy. Dr. Özkan speaks Turkish, English, Spanish as well as some Arabic. His website is www.OzkanMehmet.com
Contact
Phone: +90 212 398 01 00 / 3042
E-mail: mozkan@msu.edu.tr