Professor Mustafa Aydın graduated from the Department of International Relations, Ankara University, in 1988 and obtained his M.A. in International Relations and Strategic Studies (1991) and his PhD in Political Sciences and International Relations (1994) from Lancaster University, UK. He later joined Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Sciences in 1995 as an assistant professor, becoming associate professor in 1999 and full professor in 2005. He was the founding head of the Global and Regional Studies Program. Between 2005 and 2009, he worked for the University of Economics and Technology as the Head of the Department of International Relations. He was also a member of the same university’s Senate, the governing board of the Faculty of Administrative and Economic Sciences, and the Graduate School. Professor Aydın served as the Rector of Kadir Has University between February 2010 and March 2018.
Professor Aydın is the Coordinator of the Global Academy, President of the International Relations Council of Turkey, a member of the Governing Board of the World Council for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), Co-Coordinator of the Greek Turkish Forum, and a member of the European Academy of Art and Science.
Professor Aydın was Director of the International Policy Research Institute (IPRI) (2005-2011), Co-Coordinator for the International Commission on the Black Sea (2009-2010), Coordinator of the International Relations Module at the National Security Academy (2002-2008), Head of the Central Asia Desk (1999-2003) and Publication Coordinator (2002-2003) at the Centre for Eurasian Strategic Studies, Deputy Chairman of the International Commission of Eminent Persons on the Caucasus and the Caspian (2007-2008). In addition, Professor Aydın served on the Economy and Foreign Policy Study Group of the President of Turkey (2003-2009), the Economic Foreign Relations Research Commission of the State Planning Organization of Turkey (2005), the Political Sciences Study Group of Turkish Social Sciences Research Council (2005-2006), and on the Cankaya District Human Rights Board (2007-2009).
As a guest researcher and visiting professor, Professor Aydın has worked at the University of Michigan (1998), Harvard University Kennedy School of Government (2002), and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2003), in addition to the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies (1999), the EU Institute for Security Studies (2003), and the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (2018).
He is a member of the International Studies Association (ISA), Turkish Atlantic Council, Global Relations Forum (GIF), European Leadership Network (ELN), Turkish Political Sciences Association, International Political Science Association (IPSA), European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS), Regional Network of Strategic Studies Centers, and International Network on Regional Security.
Professor Aydın, who had previously served as an editor for the Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, Review of International Affairs, and Ankara Papers, is currently Editor-in-Chief of Uluslararası İlişkiler (International Relations), Panorama Portal, and Security Portal. Professor Aydın’s academic interests include Theories of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Security Studies, Geopolitics, Strategic Studies, Foreign and Security Policies of Turkey, and Eurasian Politics.
