Turkish Perspectives on the Ukraine War

We are excited to be joined by Professor Dr Mustafa Kibaroğlu, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences at MEF University in Istanbul, to give a lecture on Turkish perspectives on the Ukraine war. Professor Kibaroğlu will discuss the Turkish government's stance toward the war in Ukraine and its "balancing policy" between its NATO allies and how its northern neighbour Russia has been the subject of significant debate at home as much as abroad among academics, political analysts, intellectuals, former diplomats, and ex-military officers.

 

Professor Kibaroglu's talk will shed light on the contending approaches of the sides to the debate and will discuss how they see the evolution of the war, what they are criticising the most, where they lend their support regarding the policies pursued by the government, and how they see the future of the relations between Ankara, Western capitals and Moscow.

 

Following Professor Kibaroglu's lecture, Professor Wyn Bowen will then chair a question-and-answer session.

 

You can sign up for the event here.

 

About the speakers

Professor Dr Mustafa Kibaroğlu (Ph.D., Bilkent University, International Relations Department, 1996) is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences at MEF University in Istanbul. He used to teach courses on “Arms Control & Disarmament” and “Turkish Foreign Policy” in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University in Ankara from 1997 to 2011 where he was also the Vice-Chair of the Department.

Professor Kibaroğlu was a Research Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva (1995); International Atomic Energy Agency Fellow at the University of Southampton (1996); Post-doctoral Fellow at the Monterey Institute in California (1996/97); and Sabbatical Fellow at the Belfer Center of Harvard University (2004/05).

Research interests of Professor Kibaroğlu are proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, NATO, European security and defense policies, international terrorism, Middle Eastern politics, and Turkish foreign policy. He is the co-author of “Global Security Watch – Turkey” (2009) by Praegers in the United States, and the co-editor of “Defence Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism” (2010), “Bioterrorism: Threats and Deterrents” (2010), “Responses to Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism” (2011), “Defence Against Terrorism” (2011), and “Analysis and Strategies to Counter the Terrorism Threat” (2011) by IOS Press in Netherlands. He is also the author and co-author of numerous chapters in books and articles in academic journals, such as Security Dialogue, Nonproliferation Review, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Middle East Quarterly, Middle East Journal, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Middle Eastern Studies, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Turkish Studies, Middle East Policy, and Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies.

Professor Kibaroğlu used to be the Academic Advisor of the NATO Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT) between 2006 and 2013. He is a Council Member of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize winner Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

 

 

Professor Wyn Bowen is Professor of Non-proliferation and International Security in the Department of War Studies and Co-Director of the Freeman Air & Space Institute in the School of Security Studies, King's College London. Between 2016 - 2022 he served as Head of the School of Security Studies. Prior to this from 2014 he was Head of Department/Dean of Academic Studies of the Defence Studies Department, based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) at the UK Defence Academy. Prior to April 2014, he was Director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies (2007-2014). Bowen has been a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies (1995-1997) and a Centre Associate of the Matthew B. Ridgway Centre for International Security Studies, University of Pittsburgh.

Bowen is a William Penney Fellow of the Atomic Weapons Establishment working on issues related to arms control. Bowen was a weapons inspector on several missile teams in Iraq with the UN Special Commission (1997-98) and also worked as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear safeguards issues in the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia. Bowen has been a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee for inquiries into 'The Decision to go to War with Iraq,' (2003) and 'Weapons of Mass Destruction,' (2000), and served on the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on the Scientific Aspects of International Security and its Working Group on Nuclear Non-Proliferation. He has been a Trustee of the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC).