Wilson Center Experts
Hamid Akin Unver
Expertise:
Energy Security
; Security and Defense
; NATO
; Europe
; Turkey
; Middle East and North Africa
Affiliation:
Faculty Fellow of Foreign Affairs, Department of International Relations, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey
Hamid Akin Unver is the Ertegun Lecturer of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at the Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies department. Akin has been a joint post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Center for European Studies and the Center for the Middle East and North African Studies. He was able to publish several articles while at the University of Michigan, including Turkey’s deep-state and the Ergenekon conundrum. Previously, he has assumed teaching positions at the University of Essex and Sabanci University. Also, Akin has held positions with the European Union Secretariat-General, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Eurasian Center for Strategic Studies, and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Related Content for this Expert
How Turkey’s Islamists Fell out of love with Iran: The Near Future of Turkish-Iranian Relations
April 23, 2013 // 3:00pm — 4:00pm
After the 1979 revolution, Iran’s Islamist regime emerged as the clear anti-thesis of a secular Turkey and two countries’ relationship was only sustained by political Islamists on both sides. According to Akin Unver, this 1979-2010 Islamist connection is also being reversed by the sectarian faultlines unearthed by the Arab Spring. Iran’s rapid fall from grace with Turkish Islamists is one of the most important recent structural shifts in the Middle East, Unver suggests. Such a break is far from marginal and yields several important points for consideration. more
Regional Security Complex Theory and Turkish Foreign Policy: NATO Missile Shield, Eurasian Energy Politics and the Arab Spring
May 03, 2012 // 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Turkish foreign policy is coming under increasing scrutiny since the election of the ruling Justice and Development Party in 2002. Critiques state that Turkish foreign policy is becoming 'neo-Ottoman' or 'Islamist', arguing that Turkey is moving closer to the Middle East than Europe. The underlying hypothesis of Hamid Akin Unver's lecture however, argues that Turkey's foreign policy is not becoming more Islamist; it is becoming more British, following a pattern of external affairs in which identity is becoming increasingly more pronounced. By focusing on three case studies: Turkey’s self-appointed role as an energy hub between Europe and Russia, its role in NATO and its recent installation of the missile defense shield, and finally, its changing stance against Iran and Syria following the Arab Spring, the lecture will discuss how identity (as it relates to the narratives of history and culture) shape Turkey’s foreign policy understanding and patterns of cooperation and conflict. more
How Turkey’s Islamists Fell out of love with Iran: The Near Future of Turkish-Iranian Relations
April 23, 2013 // 3:00pm — 4:00pm
After the 1979 revolution, Iran’s Islamist regime emerged as the clear anti-thesis of a secular Turkey and two countries’ relationship was only sustained by political Islamists on both sides. According to Akin Unver, this 1979-2010 Islamist connection is also being reversed by the sectarian faultlines unearthed by the Arab Spring. Iran’s rapid fall from grace with Turkish Islamists is one of the most important recent structural shifts in the Middle East, Unver suggests. Such a break is far from marginal and yields several important points for consideration.
Regional Security Complex Theory and Turkish Foreign Policy: NATO Missile Shield, Eurasian Energy Politics and the Arab Spring
May 03, 2012 // 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Turkish foreign policy is coming under increasing scrutiny since the election of the ruling Justice and Development Party in 2002. Critiques state that Turkish foreign policy is becoming 'neo-Ottoman' or 'Islamist', arguing that Turkey is moving closer to the Middle East than Europe. The underlying hypothesis of Hamid Akin Unver's lecture however, argues that Turkey's foreign policy is not becoming more Islamist; it is becoming more British, following a pattern of external affairs in which identity is becoming increasingly more pronounced. By focusing on three case studies: Turkey’s self-appointed role as an energy hub between Europe and Russia, its role in NATO and its recent installation of the missile defense shield, and finally, its changing stance against Iran and Syria following the Arab Spring, the lecture will discuss how identity (as it relates to the narratives of history and culture) shape Turkey’s foreign policy understanding and patterns of cooperation and conflict.