Speakers for this event

• Murat Yesiltas

  Murat Yesiltas

  Assoc. Professor in the Middle East Institute at Sakarya University

  Assoc. Prof. Murat Yesiltas has completed his BA and MA at the Department of International Relations of Sakarya University, in 2003 and 2009, respectively. He earned his PhD at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Marmara University in 2012 with the thesis titled “Locating Turkey: Geopolitical Mentality and the Army in Turkey.” Yesiltas was a visiting researcher at the Department of European Studies and International Politics of Lancaster University between 2008 and 2009. He was a visiting researcher at Virginia Tech’s Institute of Government and International Relations in 2010-2011. Currently, Yesiltas is an Assoc. Professor in the Middle East Institute at Sakarya University. He also holds the position of director of security studies at SETA Foundation, Ankara, Turkey.

  Assoc. Professor in the Middle East Inst...

• Wadah Khanfar

  Wadah Khanfar

  President of The Al Sharq Forum

  Wadah Khanfar is the President of the Al Sharq Forum and former Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He is a board member of the International Crisis Group and Global Editors Network (GEN). Khanfar has been named as one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 global thinkers of 2011 as well as one of Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business’ of the year.

  President of The Al Sharq Forum

• Emad Shahin

  Emad Shahin

  Senior Fellow at Georgetown University

  Emad Shahin is the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation and a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University. Before joining CIS, he was the Hasib Sabbagh Distinguished Visiting Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies, visiting professor of Political Science at Georgetown University and the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. He is tenured professor of public policy, The American University in Cairo (on leave). Shahin holds a Ph.D. (1989) from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, M.A. (1983) and BA (1980) from the American University in Cairo. He has taught in leading universities in the United States including Harvard, Notre Dame, Georgetown, George Washington, and Boston University. His research and teaching interests focus on Islam and Politics Comparative Politics, Democracy and Political Reform in Muslim societies, and Political Economy of the Middle East.

  Senior Fellow at Georgetown University

• Ibrahim Kalin

  Ibrahim Kalin

  Presidential Spokesperson

  Ibrahim Kalin is the Presidential Spokesperson, Ambassador, Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency and Special Adviser to the President of Turkey. Previously he served as the Assistant Undersecretary of State and Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey. Dr. Kalin is the founding-director of the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research based in Ankara, Turkey and served as its director from 2005 to 2009. He is a fellow at the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. He writes weekly columns in Daily Sabah. Dr. Kalin has published widely on Islamic philosophy, relations between Islam and the West and Turkish foreign policy. His publications include Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sadra on Existence, Intellect and Intuition (2010), and Mulla Sadra (2013). His book Islam and the West (published in Turkish, and translated into several languages) has won the 2007 Writers’ Association of Turkey award for best book. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Two Volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science and Technology in Islam.

  Presidential Spokesperson

• Ramazan Yildirim

  Ramazan Yildirim

  Professor at Istanbul University

  Professor at Istanbul University

• Galip Dalay

  Galip Dalay

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research

  Research director at Al Sharq Forum and senior associate fellow on Turkey and Kurdish Affairs at Al Jazeera Center for Studies. He previously worked as a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and as a political researcher at SETA Foundation in Ankara. He is a regular contributor to German Marshall Fund of the United States’ on Turkey policy brief series, and a columnist for Middle East Eye.

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Stra...

• Naadira Munshi

  Naadira Munshi

  Fellow Researcher at Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa

  Naadira Munshi is an activist and researcher working in the non-profit industry. Her focus is on human rights, with an interest in labour and socioeconomic rights. She holds a Masters of Arts (by dissertation) in Sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand.

  Fellow Researcher at Socio-Economic Righ...

• David Hearst

  David Hearst

  Editor-in-Chief of the Middle East Eye

  David Hearst is the Editor-in-Chief of the Middle East Eye, an independent website based in London covering the Middle East in English and French. He writes a column for the Huffington Post’s “The World Post” section and appears as a commentator on the Middle East for Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, TRT, Alaraby TV, Russia Today, Masr Al-Aan TV. Prior to that, he was Chief Foreign Leader writer of The Guardian, Associate Foreign Editor, and Moscow Bureau Chief, European Correspondent, and Northern Ireland correspondent.

  Editor-in-Chief of the Middle East Eye

• Ibrahim Halawi

  Ibrahim Halawi

  Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway University

  Ibrahim Halawi is a London-based researcher and a PhD candidate in Politics at Royal Holloway University of London. His research focuses on the theoretical relationship between revolution and counterrevolution, with an emphasis on the Arab uprisings. Also, he co-founded a secular student movement and student-run newspaper in Lebanon.

  Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway Univ...

• Monica Marks

  Monica Marks

  Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

  Monica Marks is a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Rhodes Scholar at St Antony’s College, Oxford, where she is completing her Ph.D. A leading analyst on Islamist politics in Tunisia. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed academic publications, think tanks including the Brookings Institute and Carnegie Endowment, and more popularly oriented publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, and Foreign Policy. Her research is currently supported by the IREMAM institute in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she is a Research Fellow. She is currently based in Istanbul and Tunisia, researching Islamist movements and MENA regional politics in Arabic, French, and Turkish.

  Visiting Fellow at the European Council ...

• José Ciro Martínez

  José Ciro Martínez

  PhD student at University of Cambridge

  José Ciro Martínez is a PhD student in the Department of Politics and International Studies and Visiting Researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (IESA) in Córdoba, Spain.

  PhD student at University of Cambridge

• Na’eem Jeenah

  Na’eem Jeenah

  Executive Director of the Afro-Middle East Centre

  Na’eem Jeenah is the Executive Director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, a research institute based in Johannesburg, South Africa, that focuses on the Middle East and Africa. Na’eem taught political science at the University of the Witwatersrand. His recent publications include: Pretending democracy: Israel, an ethnocratic state (2012) and (co-edited) The PLO: Critical appraisals from the inside (2014). He also coauthored (with Shamima Shaikh) Journey of discovery: A South African Hajj (2002). Na’eem is sought-after as a commentator on a range of issues regarding the Middle East and North Africa, Political Islam, Islam and Muslims in South Africa.

  Executive Director of the Afro-Middle Ea...

• Maria Fantappie

  Maria Fantappie

  Senior Analyst at International Crisis Group

  Maria Fantappie is Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for Iraq. Maria has conducted fieldwork in Iraq and Syria since 2009, and works with other members of the Middle East & North Africa team to research and produce reports on security, conflict, politics, governance, and social issues on Iraq, Syria and the Kurdish regions. She has engaged policymakers on her research at some of the highest levels of government in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

  Senior Analyst at International Crisis G...

• Omar Ashour

  Omar Ashour

  Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies of University of Exeter

  Omar Ashour is a Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies of University of Exeter and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House in London. He is currently working on a book analysing the military tactics and strategies of IS in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt. He specializes in asymmetric armed conflict, Islamist movements, insurgency/counterinsurgency, terrorism studies, and democratization. He is a regular contributor to media outlets including the BBC, Al-Jazeera, Sky News, CNN, al-Arabiya and others and his op-eds are frequently published in many media outlets in seven languages, in over 40 countries. He previously served as a senior consultant for the United Nations on security sector reform, counter-terrorism, and de- radicalization issues. He is the author of The DeRadicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements.

  Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at t...

• Brent Eng

  Brent Eng

  PhD candidate at University of Berkeley

  Brent Eng is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. He specializes in the anthropology of Islam and the secular, especially in the Levant. As a Stevens Scholar, Brent will conduct research on the epistemological apparatus and political economy subtending agriculture in Lebanon, with a particular emphasis on the linkages that tie them to the formation of the post-colonial state in the region.

  PhD candidate at University of Berkeley

• Mohamed Okda

  Mohamed Okda

  Political Consultant, focused on the Middle East and Political Islam

  Mohamed Okda is a Political Consultant, focused on the Middle East and Political Islam; active in the issues of interfaith, crisis mediation and assessment, the economics of conflict and religious–secular dialogue. He is also the founder of Insight into Crisis, a conflict advisory.

  Political Consultant, focused on the Mid...

• Hasan Abu Haniyah

  Hasan Abu Haniyah

  Independent Researcher

  Hasan Abu Haniyah is a Jordanian researcher specialized in jihadist movements

  Independent Researcher

• Haldun Yalçınkaya

  Haldun Yalçınkaya

  Haldun Yalçınkaya graduated from Kuleli Military High School and later Turkish Military Academy. During his military service as an officer, he completed his post-graduate studies in International Relations at İstanbul University. After having served more than ten years at the Turkish Military Academy, as of 2013 he became an Associate Professor in International Relations at TOBB University of Economics and Technology

• Rizwaan Sabir

  Rizwaan Sabir

  Liverpool John Moores University

  Dr. Rizwaan Sabir is a Lecturer in Criminology in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at Liverpool John Moores University, specialising in the study of UK counter-terrorism, counterinsurgency, and political Islam.

  Liverpool John Moores University

• Mohammed Dangor

  Mohammed Dangor

  Ambassador, Middle East and North Africa advisor to the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation

  As an ambassador Mohammed Dangor is the Middle East and North Africa advisor to the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation. He previously served South African ambassador to Syria and to Libya. Ambassador Dangor has a long history in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and served in the underground movement of the African National Congress.

  Ambassador, Middle East and North Africa...

• Azzam Tamimi

  Azzam Tamimi

  Freelance Presenter at Al Hiwar TV

  Azzam Tamimi is a Freelance Presenter at Al Hiwar TV and an academic and author of Hamas: Unwritten Chapters.

  Freelance Presenter at Al Hiwar TV

• Chafic Choucair

  Chafic Choucair

  Researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies

  Chafic Choucair is a researcher at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies specializing in the affairs of the Mashreq (Levant region) and Islamist movements. He holds a PhD in Islamic studies. His research interests include crises in the Levant region, especially the Syrian issue; the Arab-Israeli struggle; Sunni and Shiite trends; and jihadist groups and their intellectual and jurisprudential rhetoric and political orientations.

  Researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Stud...

• David Africa

  David Africa

  Security Analyst

  David Africa is a security analyst based in South Africa.

  Security Analyst

• Tamer Badawi

  Tamer Badawi

  Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research

  Tamer Badawi is a Research Fellow at Al Sharq Forum. He received an M.A. in International Relations (with a major in International Political Economy) from Central European University in 2016 and a B.A. in Oriental Studies from Alexandria University in 2013. He is a regular contributor to Sada, an online publication managed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also contributes reports to the Doha-based Aljazeera Center for Studies. Research interests: The political economy of the Middle East, economic development in post-JCPOA Iran, and global energy market trends.

  Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic R...

• Talip Kucukcan

  Talip Kucukcan

  Professor of Sociology

  Talip Kucukcan was Professor of Sociology at the Marmara University. He was the Personal Representative of Chairman-in-Office of OSCE on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims (2014-2015). He worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick between 1997 and 1999. Before moving to Marmara University he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islamic Studies in Istanbul. Kucukcan was the Foreign Policy Research Director at SETA Foundation between 2010 and 2013. He served as a Senior Advisor to the President of Higher Education Council of Turkey between 2009 and 2013. He was Director of Institute for Middle East Studies Marmara University between 2011-2014. Professor Kucukcan works on Middle Eastern affairs, Turkey-EU relations, comparative secularism, Muslim minorities in Europe. He is a regular commentator on Turkish and regional politics in Turkish and international media. He was Editor-in-Chief of Insight Turkey.

  Professor of Sociology

• Yahya Al-Kubaisi

  Yahya Al-Kubaisi

  Consultant and researcher at the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies

  ​Yahya al-Kubaisi is a consultant for the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies and worked previously as a visiting researcher at the French Near East Institute. Dr. Al-Kubaisi earned his Ph.D in literary criticism from the University of Baghdad and has published numerous studies and scholarly articles in the fields of literary criticism, political science, social sciences, law, and education. Al-Kubaisi has also published a book entitled Tropes, Incarnations, and Illusions: a Study in Modern Arab Criticism (2009); he also co-authored The State of Social Sciences in Iraqi Universities (2008) and Reviews of the Iraqi Constitution (2006). Dr. Al-Kubaisi has also participated in many symposiums and scholarly conferences.

  Consultant and researcher at the Iraqi C...

• Mohammed Mukhtar Shinqiti

  Mohammed Mukhtar Shinqiti

  Professor of Political Ethics at the Center of Islamic Legislation and Ethics in Qatar

  Professor of Political Ethics at the Cen...