Kilic Bugra Kanat

Research Director

Kilic Bugra Kanat is the Research Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington DC. He is also a Professor of Political Science at Penn State University, Erie. Dr. Kanat received his PhD in Political Science from Syracuse University; a Master’s degree in Political Science from Syracuse University; and a Master’s in International Affairs from Marquette University. He was awarded the Outstanding Research Award and Council of Fellows Faculty Research Award at Penn State, Erie in 2015. He previously participated in the Future Leaders program of Foreign Policy Initiative. Dr. Kanat’s writings have appeared in Foreign Policy, Insight Turkey, The Diplomat, Middle East Policy, Arab Studies Quarterly, Mediterranean Quarterly, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. He is a columnist at Daily Sabah. He is the author of A Tale of Four Augusts: Obama’s Syria Policy. He is also co-editor of edited volumes History, Politics and Foreign Policy in Turkey, Change and Adaptation in Turkish Foreign Policy, and Politics and Foreign Policy in Turkey: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.

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Latest Publications

• Türkiye’s Vision for Its New Century

  View the Publication Buy Ebook on Google Books President Erdoğan’s statement in March 2024, “neither the world is the old world nor Türkiye is the old Türkiye”, encapsulates th..Read more

• AK Party Years in Türkiye: Domestic and Foreign Policy

  View the Publication The AK Party years in Türkiye have been truly transformational. When the party was established in 2001, the country was going through major economic and political crises. T..Read more

• An already unexpected situation in Russia-Ukraine war

  The toll of the war on civilians in Ukraine is increasing every day. The harsh aerial bombings of some towns in Ukraine and the clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces have generated another&nbs..Read more

• Russian moves send shock waves in international system

  It is difficult to imagine how, in the future, historians will write about the history of the past several years. We have witnessed not only the eruption of wars among and within nations but also the..Read more

• Spider-Man vs. superpower rivalries: Power and technology

  It may sound like a cliche to say that the world is changing, but it is. Technology has become the most significant vehicle for this transformation worldwide. Everything in the world is exposed to th..Read more

• The US and Earth: ‘Don’t Look Up,’ ‘Armageddon,’ ‘World War Z’

  It has now been almost a decade since scholars, observers and policymakers started discussing the state of U.S. leadership in the world. It has been probably the most fruitful discussion in internati..Read more

• Donald Rumsfeld’s legacy on US foreign policy

  Donald Rumsfeld died last week in New Mexico at the age of 88. He was one of the most controversial characters of the last several decades when it comes to U.S. foreign and national securit..Read more

• Will the NATO communique go beyond being a wishlist?

  The 2021 NATO summit in Brussels saw a more positive atmosphere than the 2019 London summit. Many important issues were mentioned in the 79-item communique presented in Brussels. The coming days will..Read more

• Erdoğan-Biden’s NATO talks were good, but now what?

  It was clear that there was a positive atmosphere in the speeches made at the NATO summit, but will the positive atmosphere captured at the meeting continue in the next period for Turkey-U.S. relatio..Read more

• Erdoğan-Biden meeting an indicator for other US allies

  Yesterday, one of the most significant summit meetings between Turkey and the U.S. took place in Brussels on the sidelines of the NATO summit. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with U.S. President ..Read more

• Will America please Americans?

  While determining its foreign policy, the U.S. has a major responsibility to please its own nation. The latest polls show that American citizens demand security and to put an end to the spread of arm..Read more

• Trans-Atlantic alliance meets in a different world

  Next week the members of NATO will gather in Brussels for the 31st formal meeting of the heads of states and heads of governments. Since the last meeting of the organization in London in December 201..Read more

• Biden’s June agenda will be an indicator of future US

  The week after next, for the first time since his inauguration, United States President Joe Biden will attend diplomatic summits in Europe. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions in the first six..Read more

• Friends: Just a memory from a different America

  After almost 17 years, "Friends" is coming back in a one-off reunion special. Following the announcement of the date of its release, former and current Friends fans made the reunion episode a trend i..Read more

• Biden’s US pins its hopes on COVID-19 for global image

  The COVID-19 crisis has probably been the most significant and consequential public health crisis the world has faced in the past century. Since the 1917 Spanish flu, this is the first time..Read more

• China-centric: Biden’s first 100 days in office

  In an address to U.S. Congress last week, President Joe Biden discussed his first 100 days in office. It was a critical period considering the ongoing global pandemic and deep divisions in American s..Read more

• Erdoğan-Biden’s June meeting potential venue for rescuing ties

  The statement of U.S. President Joe Biden last Saturday in regards to the 1915 events has generated more tension in bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States. For years now, ..Read more

• US-China technology war looming on the horizon

  For the last three months, since the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States, we have seen an increasing recalibration of U.S. foreign policy. First off, the administration i..Read more

• Is Washington closing its Afghan chapter for good?

  Last week U.S. President Joe Biden finally announced a deadline for the withdrawal of all the U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It was something that former U.S. President Donald Trump also wan..Read more

• Biden-Putin rivalry to shape US’ Asia-Pacific policy

  The foreseen face-to-face between U.S. President Biden and his Russian counterpart expected to be a significant determinant in Washington's upcoming Asia-Pacific moves The Biden administration, fr..Read more

• Maximum insecurity haunts world politics

  There is almost a consensus among scholars and observers of world politics that we are entering a new phase in international relations. This is expected to be another period of great power ..Read more

• Weeks, months, years? When will this happen?

  Two trends seem to be competing with one another during the coronavirus crisis in recent weeks. On the one hand, the number of people who have been vaccinated has been increasing as of late, while on..Read more

• Since inauguration, Biden pushes red alert for China

  The Biden administration's initial foreign policy statements and announcements demonstrate that China is the most significant priority of the United States. As mentioned in this column previo..Read more

• NATO’s Brussels meeting: Is the world more polarized?

  Last week there were two separate meetings that may have a long-lasting impact on the international political system and international relations. In Brussels, after a year of interruption caused by t..Read more

• An American presidential tradition: ‘America is back’

  The famous quote thought to have been said by Leo Tolstoy states that “all great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” In U.S. presidential po..Read more

• The ‘Pivot to Asia’ in Joe Biden style

  For almost two decades now, there have been debates about a conflict between China and the U.S. People from different fields, including hawkish foreign policy experts, realist international relations..Read more

• Death, inequality, recession: The COVID-19 mirror

  It has been almost a year since the declaration of the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic. It was one of the most tragic years in history. Millions were infected by the virus, and hundreds of th..Read more

• Biden on horns of a dilemma for Iranian nuclear deal

  Biden as a candidate promised to take the U.S. back to the deal and was confident of achieving it; however, his time in office has proved that this won't be an easy task Since the inauguratio..Read more

• Can Joe Biden convince allies US now reliable?

  U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration are making every effort to send a message to the world that “America is back.” Biden's motto was very clear in his recent address to the Munich Sec..Read more

• If not against coups, then when?

  Military intervention in politics is constituted one of the most significant threats for democracies around the world. Although many around the world forget the extent of this threat for th..Read more

• US-Russia affairs: No more ‘Rocky’ at the White House?

  It has become commonplace for incoming U.S. administrations to revise the nation's foreign policy toward Russia. In some instances, it can be as ambitious as former President Barack Obama's..Read more

• US’ ‘ifs and buts’ on PKK cause skepticism in Turkey

  Last week an act of terrorism shook Turkey to its core. A total of 13 Turkish citizens kidnapped by PKK terrorists in previous years were executed in the Gara region of northern Iraq. Tu..Read more

• Biden’s road map in Sino-American relations

  The new U.S. administration is expected to bring about many changes in U.S. foreign policy. Many believe that Washington will reengage in global initiatives, such as the Paris climate accord, and U.S..Read more

• Biden’s bumpy road in US foreign policy

  U.S. President Joe Biden recently made his first foreign policy speech since his inauguration on Jan. 6. In an approximately 20-minute address to State Department personnel, there was not any un..Read more

• Wake-up call for global COVID-19 vaccination process

  It has been more than a year since we started talking about the COVID-19 crisis. For many around the world, 2020 was a loss. Some people lost their loved ones. Others had to fight off the deadly dise..Read more

• A piece of advice to Biden’s team on Turkey ties

  If Biden cannot renew miscalculated U.S. foreign policy, there is no way to talk about a positive future for relations with Turkey Even before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, there were diffe..Read more

• Polarization, economic crisis, impeachment: What’s next in US?

  Washington, D.C., the U.S., Jan. 20, 2021. (Reuters Photo) It is finally over. The election battle in the United States which has been on the agenda for more than a year now came to an end. The lo..Read more

• An unprecedented inauguration post-storming

  On Wednesday, Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony is set to take place, and he will be sworn in as the 46th president of the U.S. This inauguration is unlike others in modern U.S. history, with Washing..Read more

• American democracy in crisis, a real one

  Elections and political campaigns have been a productive topic for producers in Hollywood. Numerous movies have been produced focusing on the election battle of the contenders. Some of these movies d..Read more

• Capitol protests: The state of the union

  We have seen similar scenes previously only in the movies. In TV series, such as "Designated Survivor," there was an attack on the heart of the democracy in the U.S. – the U.S. Congress. In "Die..Read more

• 2020: A year of crisis for US, China and WHO

  Ayear ago, the world was expecting different things from the year 2020. There were already too many unknowns about world affairs. U.S. President Donald Trump and his presidential style generated too ..Read more

• Trump’s last days critical for Biden

  In less than a month, the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States will take place. Joe Biden will take his oath and start his tenure as the new president. However, the events during t..Read more

• The Biden doctrine: US-Russian affairs

  With the official announcement of Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, everybody has started to discuss what the new president's foreign policy will bring for the U.S. There ar..Read more

• Is there any hope of fixing Turkey-US ties?

  As predicted, the administration of Donald Trump has announced sanctions against Turkey because of its procurement of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems. Sanctions were imposed against Turkey�..Read more

• US sanctions only cause more tension with Turkey

  The debates over sanctions through the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) have been haunting Turkish-U.S. relations for the last four years. Since being passed by Congres..Read more

• Without Turkey, trans-Atlantic alliance cannot achieve goals

  Since the U.S. elections, there have been optimistic analyses about the future of trans-Atlantic relations. Leaders of the European Union were among the first to call President-elect Joe Biden to con..Read more

• How can his new Cabinet help President-elect Biden?

  U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is forming his Cabinet, and there has been a flurry of analysis about the names he nominated for key positions. The candidates, their backgrounds and previous experienc..Read more

• America is back: From where? to when?

  Last week, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden announced some of the most senior names of his national security and foreign policy team. The only surprise was the appointment of former Secretary of State ..Read more

• From trade wars to trade agreement wars?

  Four years ago, when Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, one of his most significant priorities was to deal with the trade issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Although up to that point, the tr..Read more

• From American dream to American nightmare

  In his inauguration speech following the resignation of his predecessor President Richard Nixon, former U.S. President Gerald Ford said, "my fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." ..Read more

• Divided States of America

  The U.S. election is over. Contrary to expectations, there was no landslide in the elections. There was no blue wave and there was no overwhelming victory of one candidate over the other. The major l..Read more

• Can US repair its declining foreign image after elections?

  There have been ongoing debates about the U.S.'s declining relevance in regional crises over the last several years. Although the U.S. administration has consistently reiterated its interest in the d..Read more

• Analiz: 2020 ABD Başkanlık Seçimi Adayların Dış Politika Tercihleri | Trump ve Biden

  Pandemi sürecinde sorgulanmaya başlanan uluslararası düzen, uluslararası örgütlerin yetersiz kalması, pandemi sonrası ortaya çıkan ekonomik darboğaz ve gittikçe gerileyen Amerikan liderl..Read more

• The story of a Halloweeny election

  On Tuesday, millions of Americans will go to the ballots to vote for the president that will occupy the White House for the next four years. As asserted several times in this column, it will be an el..Read more

• Wishful thinking and allegations instead of strategy

  The second U.S. presidential debate took place on Thursday in Tennessee. The disastrous first presidential debate between the two candidates lowered the bar, with some calling for the cancellation of..Read more

• Divisions, foreign policy, COVID-19: US goes to polls

  The 2020 election is going to be one of the most significant in recent history for the U.S. Earlier this column examined the several reasons why this is such a critical election year for America, inc..Read more

• Collective efforts sole way to beat COVID-19

  After a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks, many observers and experts have started to talk about a possible second wave of the outbreak, and this should not come as a surp..Read more

• Coronavirus’s impact on image of world powers

  The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the standing and popularity of major economies around the world. None of the top three major economies handled the pandemic well. China, as the epicenter ..Read more

• China becomes domestic issue for US politics

  There are only 25 days left to the most significant and consequential elections in recent U.S. history. Mail-in and early voting have already started across the country. According to the latest stati..Read more

• US elections in light of pandemic and Trump testing positive

  There is a general consensus around the globe that 2020 will be a unique year in history. The COVID-19 pandemic put its mark on the year from the very beginning, and the developments that took place ..Read more

• Trump-Biden debate: Why US public doesn’t want to have another

  Last week in this column, I wrote about how important the debate between two presidential candidates can be, not only for the United States election but also for the country's standing around the wor..Read more

• US presidential debate in shadow of COVID-19

  The presidential debates are usually considered one of the most critical junctures of the U.S. elections. Analysts regard the debates as the last opportunity for candidates to change citizens' vot..Read more

• Can US or EU adopt a logical position in Eastern Mediterranean?

  Since the emergence of the Eastern Mediterranean crisis, there have been a lot of debates and questions regarding the role of the major powers in the potential resolution of this dispute. After Turke..Read more

• US image in post-pandemic period

  The U.S.' global standing has suffered immensely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to some new research. This situation is a reminder of yet another impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on the in..Read more

• The man in Paris: Ambitious, unreliable failure

  For the last several weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron has been targeting Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his statements about regional developments in the Middle East and Eastern..Read more

• US civil-military relations and Donald Trump

  Following the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, U.S. economist Mark Perry in his book "The Pentagon’s Wars: The Military’s Undeclared War Against American Presidents" wrote that there wa..Read more

• Compromise or not: Ankara-Greece tension continues

  or the last month, there have been increasing reports about the rising tension in the Eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece. Although tension in the Aegean Sea is not uncommon due to severa..Read more

• Farewell to Abe: Change in dynamics in Japan and Asia-Pacific

  Last week Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he is stepping down from his position due to health reasons. The announcement shocked many around the world. The longest-serving prime mini..Read more

• A wake up call for Turkey-US relations

  Turkey's discovery of natural gas reserves within its Black Sea territory last week dominated the headlines. On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, along with former energy chief and current ..Read more

• Grave mistake in US foreign policy: Active anti-Turkey attitude

  For the past few decades, there have been some circles in Washington that have fiercely endorsed the idea that the United States should pursue almost a belligerent attitude toward Turkey. Accordin..Read more

• Is Joe Biden a perfect stranger to Turkey? Guess not!

  For years now debate has raged in Washington, D.C., about anti-Americanism in Turkey. Various reports and analyses have pointed to it as the biggest spoiler of the bilateral relations between the two..Read more

• Vice presidents, US elections and Biden’s chance

  In the U.S. presidential electoral campaigns, there are several critical turning points that determine the fate of the elections. The three presidential debates and the announcement of the vice presi..Read more

• Taiwan: 1st COVID-related fallout in US-China relations

  When the coronavirus outbreak started to spread around the world in February, there were a lot of debates about the pandemic's potential implications on world politics and the international system. S..Read more

• One election, too many questions

  here are only three months left until the next U.S. presidential elections. This will be, without a doubt, one of the most consequential elections in U.S. history as it takes place amid a major globa..Read more

• South China Sea the new center of gravity in global geopolitics

  For the last several years, there has been constant dispute over the maritime delimitations of the South China Sea. Some observers of Asia Pacific politics regard the region as the most unstable i..Read more

• Russia and China in US elections

  There are many questions in regard to the potential impact of issues related to foreign policy on the U.S. elections. Foreign policy has seldom been among the issues that shape voting behavior in the..Read more

• Jaws, COVID-19 and American tragedy

  In a quote often credited to Winston Churchill, he said, "Americans will always do the right thing – after exhausting all the alternatives." For Churchill, what really mattered was "doing the right..Read more

• July 15 and Turkey-US relations

  Wednesday will be the fourth anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey. Four years ago, Turkish people defeated an attempt to overthrow the country's democratically elected government. The pe..Read more

• What happens when wearing a mask becomes a political symbol?

  It has become something ordinary to run into a headline nowadays indicating that the numbers of coronavirus cases hit a record high in the world and in some of the countries, most prominently the U.S..Read more

• Russia and US elections: Another hoax, or not?

  The 2016 presidential election in the U.S. is being remembered not only as an election that many pollsters and political analysts failed to predict, but also for the debates about Russian meddling in..Read more

• US foreign policy after elections: Trump 2.0 or Obama/Biden 3.0?

  After a long COVID-19 interval, the two U.S. presidential candidates launched their campaigns and started to meet voters. Trump campaign prefers to organize large rallies in the battleground states, ..Read more

• COVID-19 and Floyd riots: Trump’s reelection is at risk

  Last week U.S. President Donald Trump officially launched his presidential campaign by speaking in different rallies in Oklahoma, Arizona and Wisconsin. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, he actually bega..Read more

• Trump’s Jerusalem Move

  Download the Book for Free This critically important book includes chapters both contextualizing and discussing the U.S. administration’s Jerusalem declaration in great detail. Various..Read more

• COVID-19 is not over yet

  There are many debates among researchers and scientists regarding a potential “second wave” of COVID-19 in the fall. There are discussions about if and when it can emerge and what the implication..Read more

• Rivalry of insecure powers

  For scholars and observers, the return of the great power rivalry is the new normal in international relations over the last couple of years. The competition and rivalry between the U.S. and China ar..Read more

• A deja vu of debates on American decline?

  Almost 10 years ago a series of books and articles were written discussing the decline of the United States and what can happen after its fall from superpower status. The financial meltdown of 2008 t..Read more

• What’s going on between Trump and the US military?

  The events that have unfolded in the wake of the killing of George Floyd will surely take their place in the history books. The nature of the demonstrations and the violence will likely be pored over..Read more

• ‘I can’t breathe,’ neither can the world

  In the last few days, some of the commentators started to argue that the chaos and the violence in some of the American cities after the death of George Floyd is reminiscent of the anarchy in the str..Read more

• The Urgent Priority for US Foreign Policy

  Last week the White House presented its “Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China,” a report delivered to the members of the U.S. Congress in accordance with the 2019 National Defen..Read more

• The China issue and upcoming US presidential elections

  One of the most important outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis will be its impact on U.S.-China relations, according to many scholars and experts. The already-strained relations between the two countries ..Read more

• If we forget COVID-19 outbreak…

  With “normalization” beginning in many countries around the world, a debate has begun over whether we are ready to start the process or whether it is still too early. Every country is adopting no..Read more

• What went wrong in US?

  What went wrong in the U.S. handling of the COVID-19 crisis? This will be one of the most significant questions waiting to be answered in the next few years. Not only U.S. residents but also people a..Read more

• US moves toward elections amid COVID-19-induced changes

  Last week this column addressed how the coronavirus can change the debates and domestic dynamics of the U.S. elections. The crisis management and leadership in handling the outbreak, the economy – ..Read more

• Coronavirus and the US presidential elections

  If the coronavirus crisis were not at the top of the public agenda, today the most significant topic would be the U.S. presidential elections, with President Donald Trump having actually launched his..Read more

• COVID-19 and the dawning of the US-China struggle

  Since the unfolding of the coronavirus crisis, there has been an increasing number of questions about the future of Sino-U.S. relations. The two countries' relations were already going through a roug..Read more

• Why does Turkey help other nations?

  Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis a lot of countries and international institutions failed in the test of containing and managing this crisis. Among these, were the most advanced nations,..Read more

• ‘Money Heist’ in the days of coronavirus: Houston, we have a problem!

  Money Heist (La Casa de Papel)," a Spanish crime thriller, has become one of the most-watched series on Netflix in the last few years. In addition to the ingenuity of the planning of the robberies, t..Read more

• Dan Brown, cities and how Turkey is dealing with coronavirus?

  In Dan Brown’s thriller, "Inferno," the enigmatic, crazed billionaire geneticist Bertrand Zobrist drafts a plan to disseminate a deadly pathogen to the world in order to deal with the issue of the ..Read more

• Why is there a debate about WHO today?

  The coronavirus caught a great majority of people off guard with its speed of dissemination and its ratio of killing people around the world. Warnings of many experts and intelligence about the emerg..Read more

• Camus, New York and unending wars of pandemics

  The pictures of the empty streets in New York City taken during the coronavirus crisis gave a strange feeling to everybody. For those who saw or experienced the traffic jams on the main avenues of th..Read more