Mehmet Özkan is Professor of International Relations at the Joint War Institute of the Turkish National Defence University in Istanbul and an Executive Board Member of the Turkish Maarif Foundation. He previously taught at the Turkish National Police Academy in Ankara, Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá, Colombia, and International University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dr. Özkan has worked in academia, think tanks and government. He was Executive Director of the Maarif Foundation USA in New York (2018-2021), founding Regional Director for Colombia of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) (2015-2018), and Director of the International Center for Terrorism and Transnational Crime (UTSAM) in Turkey (2014-2015). He has held fellowships at the SETA Foundation in Ankara, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in New Delhi, the Center for Global Policy in Washington, DC, and Cairo University in Egypt.
He holds a PhD from the University of Seville (Spain), master’s degrees from Linköping University (Sweden) and the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), and a BA from Istanbul University, all in International Relations.
He is the author of several books, including The Non-Western World: Foreign Policy Horizons in India, South Africa, and Türkiye (in Turkish, 2025) and Coup Resistance: Why Do People Resist Military Coups? (in Turkish, 2025). His articles have appeared in journals including the Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal of International Development, Journal of Eastern African Studies and Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. He has written for Foreign Policy, Middle East Eye, Daily Sabah, AA Analiz and Kriter, and has contributed commentary to outlets including CNN en Español, NTN24, Russia Today, France24, CNN Türk and Al Jazeera Arabic.