Emre Caliskan is a Research Fellow in the Global Security Program at the Blavatnik School of Governance, specialising in Contested Cross-border Spaces, Illicit Flows, and Order in the Contemporary World, with a particular focus on the Middle East.

He is currently completing his DPhil in International Relations at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His dissertation investigates the influence of Turkish Islamist movements on Turkey’s foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa.

Emre's academic interests include transnational political Islam, the geopolitics of the Middle East, and the Islamic power competition in Africa. He holds an MA in Middle East and Mediterranean Studies from King’s College, University of London.

He is the co-author, along with Simon Waldman, of The ‘New Turkey’ and Its Discontents (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2017), which critically examines the social, religious, and political polarisation under President Erdogan’s AKP and its implications for Turkey’s future direction.

With experience as an analyst and political risk consultant, Emre has worked with IHS Markit (now part of S&P) and provided freelance advisory services on Turkey and the Middle East to private clients.

His career in journalism includes roles at the BBC Turkish Service, Cumhuriyet, and the Turkish public broadcaster TRT, where he served as a foreign correspondent based in Ankara, Damascus, Beijing, and London. He was also the founding Middle East coordinator for the European Youth Press, a network of youth media organisations in Europe.

Besides his position at the Blavatnik School of Governance, Emre serves as the Director of Needs Map Global, a non-profit organisation and social cooperative aimed at bridging the gap between people in need and those willing to offer support. He is also a Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre.