July 15, 2020

10:00am –11:00am

Zoom Webinar

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Four years after the July 15 failed coup attempt, Turkey finds itself at a significantly changed geopolitical environment. Since that fateful day, Turkish security and foreign policies have been transformed in unprecedented ways so as to render the country a major player in the region including in Syria, Iraq, Libya among others. As it adopted a new counterterrorism doctrine going after the PKK/YPG as well as ISIS along its borders, Turkey also emerged as a main actor in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf region. While Turkey’s relationship with the US has gone through a rough patch in recent years, recent developments have shown reassuring signs. The country’s robust handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has also underlined Turkish efforts to help allies deal with this unprecedented challenge. Given that Turkey has been active and decisive in so many fronts, how have the Turkish security and foreign policies since the failed coup attempt of 2016 evolved? What are some of the guiding principles and persistent interests? Can the US and Turkey cooperate in a region with so many different forces pulling in different directions?   To discuss these questions, SETA DC is pleased to host two panel discussions on Turkish security and foreign policy on the fourth anniversary of the July 15 failed coup attempt.

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Speakers Mustafa Kibaroğlu, Dean, Economics, Faculty of Economics Administrative and Social Sciences (FEASS), MEF University Michael Reynolds, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University Moderated by Kadir Ustun, Executive Director, The SETA Foundation at Washington DC   Bios Mustafa Kibaroğlu is the Dean of Faculty of Economics Administrative and Social Sciences (FEASS) at MEF University in Istanbul. He was previously the Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at MEF University in Istanbul. He also served as Chair of the Department of International Relations at Okan University and as Vice Chair of the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University. Prof. Kibaroglu’s research centers on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Middle Eastern politics, and Turkish foreign policy. Prof. Kibaroglu has held fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University; the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the Monterey Institute of International Studies; and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva. He is the author (with Prof. Dr. Aysegul Kibaroglu) of Global Security Watch Turkey: A Reference Handbook (Praeger Security International, 2009) and has edited and contributed to several edited volumes on Turkish foreign policy as well as WMD proliferation issues. He received his PhD in International Relations from Bilkent University in Ankara in 1996, his MA in Economics in 1990 and his BSc in Industrial Engineering in 1987, both from Bogazici University in Istanbul. Michael Reynolds is Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the Director of Princeton University’s Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and Associate Professor in Princeton’s Department of Near Eastern Studies. His teaching and research ranges over the geography of the Middle East and Eurasia and covers the themes of empire, international relations, nationalism, geopolitics, ethnic conflict, and religion and culture. He is the author of Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2011), co-winner of the 2011 American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize, a Financial Times book of the summer, and a Choice outstanding academic title, and is the editor of Constellations of the Caucasus: Empires, Peoples, and Faiths (Markus Weiner, 2016). Currently he is at work on a biography of Enver Pasha, hero of the Young Turk Revolution and Ottoman Minister of War during WWI. Kadir Ustun is the Executive Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington, D.C. Previously, Dr. Ustun was the Research Director at SETA DC and Assistant Editor of Insight Turkey. Dr. Ustun holds a PhD in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies from Columbia University and a Master’s degree in History from Bilkent University. He has contributed to various SETA reports and his writings have appeared in various publications such as Insight Turkey, Al Jazeera English, Hurriyet Daily News, Daily Sabah, Mediterranean Quarterly, and Cairo Review of Global Affairs among others. He is also co-editor of edited volumes History, Politics and Foreign Policy in Turkey, Change and Adaptation in Turkish Foreign Policy, and Politics and Foreign Policy in Turkey: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives