Our Faculty Members and PhD Students Participated in the XI International Relations Council Congress

Our faculty members and PhD students participated in various panels and sessions at the XI International Relations Studies and Education Congress, organized by the International Relations Council of Turkey (UIK) on 7–10 May 2026.

Our faculty member Assoc. Prof. Sıtkı Egeli contributed as a speaker to the Global Academy and Center for Global Political Trends Joint Panel, “Making and Understanding Foreign Policy in an Unsettling World.” In the panel “Defense Technologies, UAVs, and New Security Dynamics,” he delivered a presentation titled “The Rise of One-Way Attack UAVs: An Assessment in Terms of Air Superiority and Air Defense Paradigms."

Our faculty member Dr. Umut Can Adısönmez served as moderator in the session “Ontological Security: Identity, Memory, and Institutions.” He further contributed to the panel “Looking at Ontological Security Theory from Limbo” with his presentation titled “Looking at Ontological Security Theory from Limbo: The Uneasiness of Civilization and Turkey as a Revisionist Power in a Changing World Order.”

Our research assistant Dr. Nil Dikmengil contributed to the panel “Decision-Making, Perception, and Regional Initiatives in Turkish Foreign Policy” with her presentation titled “A Structural Analysis of Decision-Making Strategy in Turkey’s Foreign Policy Crises: The S-400 Crisis.”

Our PhD student Begüm Büyüksavaş Özbudaklı presented her paper titled “Beyond Binary Opposition: Turkey’s UAV Diplomacy as a ‘Third Way’ for Transactional Security” in the panel titled “Defense Technologies, UAVs, and New Security Dynamics.”

Our PhD student Mustafa Murat Uluer contributed to the panel “Looking at Ontological Security Theory from Limbo” with his presentation titled “Cultural Heritage as an Ontological Security Issue: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and the Looting of Cultural Heritage (2022–2026).”

The presentations contributed to ongoing academic discussions on foreign policy, defense technologies, ontological security, and contemporary security dynamics.