Prof. Ismail Numan Telci is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, and Director of the Center for Gulf Studies and Global Policy, at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul. He previously spent 16 years at Sakarya University, where he was founding deputy director of the Middle East Institute (ORMER) from 2014 to 2018. From 2016 to 2019 he was a foreign policy researcher at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) in Ankara, focusing on the Gulf and North Africa. From 2019 to 2024 he was Vice President of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM), where he established and led its Gulf Studies and Africa Studies programmes. Over the same period, from 2020 to 2024, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Ortadoğu Publishing House. In 2024–2025 he was a visiting faculty member in the Department of Political Science at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman.
His research focuses on the Middle East, the Gulf, North Africa and East Africa, with particular emphasis on comparative politics, foreign policy and security. He has carried out research, fieldwork, policy forums, election observation missions and international programmes in more than 60 countries across the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. His articles have appeared in journals including Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Migration Studies, the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies and Insight Turkey. He is the author of six books and numerous policy reports, analyses and opinion pieces. His commentary has been featured by Anadolu Agency, TRT World, Al Jazeera, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Le Monde, Middle East Eye, Asahi Shimbun and Newsweek.