Mustafa Aydın is a Turkish academic (Professor of International Relations), writer, columnist, TV commentator, and public intellectual. He served as the Rector of Kadir Has University (İstanbul, Turkey) between 2010 and 2018; and currently is the President of the International Relations Council (UIK) of Turkey. He graduated from the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science of Ankara University in 1988. He did a master’s degree in the field of International Relations and Strategic Studies in 1991 at Lancaster University, UK, and obtained his PhD “Political Sciences and International Relations” in 1994 from the same university. Worked as an academic member at the Faculty of Political Science of Ankara University between 1995 and 2005. He later held positions as the Head of the Department of International Relations at the TOBB University of Economics and Technology between 2005 and 2010; Director of International Policy Research Institute (TEPAV-IPRI, Ankara) between 2005 and 2011; Co-Coordinator of the International Commission on the Black Sea; member of the Economy and Foreign Policy Study Group of the President’s Office; Board Member of the strategic research centers of both the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Turkish Armed Forces; Deputy Chairperson of the International Commission of Eminent Persons on the Caucasus and Caspian (2007-2008); Alexander S. Onassis Fellow at the University of Athens (2003); Research Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris (2003); Fulbright Scholar at the JFK School of Government, Harvard University (2002); and UNESCO Fellow at the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies, UK (1999).