Speakers for this event

• Welile Nhlapo

  Welile Nhlapo

  South Africa’s former Ambassador in the United States

  Welile Nhlapo has served as South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States since August 14, 2007. He began his activities as a student in the Black Consciousness Movement, but by 1973, a banning order was issued against him. He went into exile in Botswana in 1974, and became Deputy Editor of the ANC publication Sechaba, and Head of the ANC Youth Section. Nhlapo later became the ANC Chief Representative in Botswana, and Head of the Political Section in the ANC Secretary-General’s office. He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1994, and was part of the South African Government delegation to the United Nations General Assembly later that year. In 1995, he was appointed South African Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. In 1997, he was appointed Special Envoy to Burundi. He also served as non-resident Ambassador to Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan. In 1998, he was appointed Deputy Director-General responsible for Africa in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and in 2001, was appointed Head of the Presidential Support Unit. Nhlapo was appointed deputy Head of Mission responsible for political affairs in the African Union Mission in Burundi. He later became the Head of the Political Section of the United Nations Mission there. Nhlapo was a director in the Department of Political Affairs (Africa Division 1) at the United Nation’s Headquarters in New York. He also served as the chairman of the board of the Nelson Mandela’s Children Fund in the United States.

  South Africa’s former Ambassador in th...

• 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...

• Patrick Bond

  Patrick Bond

  Professor of Political Economy at the Wits School of Governance

  Patrick Bond, a Professor of Political Economy, combines political economy and political ecology in his research and applied work. He is a professor of political economy at the Wits School of Governance and honorary professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Built Environment and Development Studies where from 2004 until 2016 he directed the Centre for Civil Society. Prior to that he was a professor at the WSG from 1997 until 2004 and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and also held visiting professorships at York University and the University of California/Berkeley on sabbaticals. During the 1990s he served at the Johannesburg NGOs Planact and the National Institute for Economic Policy and from 1994 until 2000 drafted more than a dozen government policy documents, including the White Paper on Reconstruction and Development. Bond has written several books.

  Professor of Political Economy at the Wi...

• Ali Osman Ozturk

  Ali Osman Ozturk

  Public Diplomacy Coordinator & Chief Advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister

  Ali Osman Öztürk is the Public Diplomacy Coordinator & Chief Advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister. Ali Osman Öztürk received his BA and MA at Istanbul University. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration at North Carolina State University (2005). Dr. Öztürk started his administrative career in 2007 serving as the director of Leadership in the Public Sector (LPS) B.A. program, and his academic career as a faculty member at School of Public and International Affairs, North Caroline State University. After moving back to Turkey, he first joined Istanbul Commerce University serving as the director of leadership and entrepreneurship research and application center by mid-2014. Since then, he has been a faculty member in Political Science and Public Administration Department at Istanbul Medipol University. His research has appeared in Social Science Computer Review, Public Administration and Development, Journal of Political Science Education, and Journal of Business Ethics. His research interests include new public management, leadership and entrepreneurship in the public sector, public sector ethics and public sector organizational culture. Dr.Öztürk has been working with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Numan Kurtulmuş as a senior advisor since late 2014, and serving as the public diplomacy coordinator of Turkish Prime Ministry since April, 2016.

  Public Diplomacy Coordinator & Chief Adv...

• Volkan Ipek

  Volkan Ipek

  Assistant Professor at Yeditepe University

  Volkan Ipek is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Yeditepe University. His study focuses on African political economy.

  Assistant Professor at Yeditepe Universi...

• MESUT ÖZCAN

  MESUT ÖZCAN

  Director of Diplomacy Academy of MFA

  Mesut Ozcan is currently the Director of Diplomacy Academy of MFA. He serves on the editorial boards of Insight Turkey, Divan and Perceptions journals. He previously lectured at Istanbul Ticaret University’s Department of International Relations and continues to teach at Istanbul Sehir University. Ozcan is the author of three books: Sorunlu Miras Irak (Istanbul: Küre, 2003), Harmonizing Foreign Policy: Turkey, the EU and the Middle East (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), and Medeniyetler ve Dünya Düzen(ler)i, Mesut Özcan and Muzaffer Şenel (ed), (Istanbul: Klasik, 2010).

  Director of Diplomacy Academy of MFA

• Fatima Shabodien

  Fatima Shabodien

  Country Director at ActionAid South Africa

  Before joining Action Aid South Africa as Country Director, Fatima Shabodien as the Executive Director of the Women on Farms Project (WFP) in South Africa from 2004 to 2012.

  Country Director at ActionAid South Afri...

• 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...

• Thembisa Fakude

  Thembisa Fakude

  Head of Research Relations at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in Doha

  Thembisa Fakude is the Head of Research Relations at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in Doha. He holds a masters degree in politics from the university of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the former Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera Media Network in Southern Africa and the former Chairperson of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa. He is also a regular contributor in the Peninsula Newspaper, a leading English daily newspaper in the state of Qatar.

  Head of Research Relations at Al Jazeera...

• Tuba Nur Sonmez

  Tuba Nur Sonmez

  Advisor to the President of the Republic of Turkey

  Tuba Nur Sonmez is advisor to the President of the Republic of Turkey, H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She graduated from the Political Science Department of the International Islamic University in Malaysia, and she received her MA in European Studies MA from Istanbul Bilgi University. Her professional life has been in the areas of media, civil society, political party activities and the state institutions. She served as the advisor to the Ministry of European Union Affairs and as the Foreign Affairs Coordinator at the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) Headquarters. Sonmez is an active member of several civil society organizations especially those that focus on woman issues, human rights, and media. She specializes on the South East Asian Politics, Development Studies, Public Diplomacy, and Women Studies.

  Advisor to the President of the Republic...

• Taha Ozhan

  Taha Ozhan

  Turkish Politician

  Taha Özhan, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission, Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey. Previously, He served as Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey. Prior to this, He served as president of Ankara-headquarterd SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research

  Turkish Politician

• Nurşin Güney

  Nurşin Güney

  Professor of international relations and head of International Relations Department at Yildiz University

  Nurşin Ateşoğlu Güney is professor of international relations and head of international relations department at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey. Prof. Güney is also vice president and security and nuclear energy fellow at the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies (BILGESAM). She contributes to BİLGESAM every month by writing one analysis on security related matters. She has extensively published on Middle East, security studies, American foreign and security policies

  Professor of international relations and...

• Ammar Kahf

  Ammar Kahf

  Co-Founder and Executive Director of OMRAN Center for Studies

  Ammar Kahf is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Omran for Strategic Studies, and a Board Member of the Syrian Forum. He earned his Ph.D at the Interdisciplinary Program for Islamic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles with a subfield focus on political science, history and sociology. His dissertation research was entitled "Syrian Authoritarianism: Persistence or Change?" His research work focuses on geopolitical political studies, transitional period comparative studies, local governance, and economic development

  Co-Founder and Executive Director of OMR...

• 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...

• Cevdet Yilmaz

  Cevdet Yilmaz

  Former Minister of Development & Deputy Chairman of Ak Party

  Cevdet Yılmaz is a Turkish politician who served as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in the interim election government formed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu from 28 August to 17 November 2015. He previously served as the Minister of Development from 2011 to 2015 and again from 2015 to 2016. Yılmaz went to the United States between 1992 and 1994, and graduated from the International Relations Department at the University of Denver. At the Bilkent University's Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Yılmaz received a doctorate. In 2003, Yılmaz was appointed for the Directorate General of EU Relations. In the elections of 2007, Yılmaz was elected as deputy of Bingöl. On 1 May 2009 he was appointed as the State Minister in the second cabinet of Erdoğan. On 6 July 2011 Yılmaz became Minister of Development in the third cabinet of Erdoğan.

  Former Minister of Development & Deputy ...

• Fatima Hajaig

  Fatima Hajaig

  Member at African National Congress

  Ms Hajaig has been a MP since 1994. She has served in various positions in Parliament including the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, has been part of the JMC on JMC Improvement of Quality of Life and the Status of Women, Member of the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs, Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs (Sub-Committee on International Affairs), the Pan African committee on Justice and Human Rights, SADC-PF Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, the Parliamentary Group on International Relations and Parliamentarians For Global Action. Her political career includes membership of the ANCWYL Executive in Gauteng, taking part in the Kempton Park negotiations and membership of the UDF, Patriotic Front, Transvaal Indian Congress and the Transvaal Youth Congress.

  Member at African National Congress

• Steven Friedman

  Steven Friedman

  Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and University of Johannesburg

  Steven Friedman is director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Johannesburg and Rhodes University. His current research focuses on democratic theory, and over the past decade, he has largely written on the relationship between democracy, social inequality and economic growth. In particular, he has stressed the role of citizen voice in strengthening democracy and promoting equality and has also analysed biases in South Africa’s democratisation which has obstructed democratic participation by the poor. Dr. Friedman has also researched and written widely on the South African transition to democracy, both before and after the elections of 1994. During the 1980s, he produced a series of studies of reform apartheid and its implications for a democratic future.

  Director of the Centre for the Study of ...

• Halil Berktay

  Halil Berktay

  Professor at Ibn Haldun University

  HALİL BERKTAY (b. 1947), historian, Prof. Dr., Ibn Haldun University (since May 2017). Previously, a member of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabanci University (1998-2016); emeritus professor since 31st January 2016. Former History Program Coordinator, Turkish Studies Program Coordinator, Sabanci Summer School Coordinator, and Sabanci-Harvard Summer School Coordinator at the same university. BA and MA in Economics, Yale University (USA), 1968. Phd History, University of Birmingham, UK, 1991. Has also taught (as an assistant or junior lecturer) at the Political Sciences Faculty of Ankara University; (as a full-time academic) at Middle East Technical University and Boğaziçi University; and (as a visiting professor) at Michigan (Ann Arbor) as well as, on two separate occasions at Harvard (1997 and 2007-2008). Research interests: historiography (general and Turkish); debates over pre-capitalist modes of production and theories of feudalism; attempts at conceptualising the Ottoman social formation; the formation of Turkish nationalism and national memory; revolutions and military takeovers; the Turkish revolutions in comparative perspective; the human costs of modernity and the nation-state; remembering and forgetting; history curricula and textbooks in the Balkans; history of Marxism and socialism.

  Professor at Ibn Haldun University

• Ertan Aydin

  Ertan Aydin

  Former Senior Adviser to the Turkish Prime Minister

  Dr Ertan Aydin is a Turkish lawmaker with the AK Party who has also served as a senior adviser to the Turkish prime minister. He has also been a research affiliate at Harvard University and a visiting fellow at Dartmouth College from 2000 till 2003.

  Former Senior Adviser to the Turkish Pri...