Hülya Kınık is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. She holds PhD on International Relations from Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. Her dissertation explores the effects of Rising Powers on the international system, mainly focusing on Turkey. Her primary research interests are Turkish Foreign Policy, Rising Powers and Geopolitical Studies.

Fevzi Kırbaşoğlu works as Research Assistant of the International Relations Department at Karadeniz Technical University (KTU), Türkiye. He received MA degree in 2019 from the International Relations Department of KTU, with a thesis entitled “The EU’s Response to Rising Powers: The Case of Turkey”. In the same year, he started his doctoral studies in the field of International Security and Terrorism under the Council of Higher Education's (CoHE) prestigious 100/2000 PhD Scholarship Program. His current research interests include EU Law and Institutions, European Political Integration, and the geopolitical dynamics of the Black Sea region.

Murat ÇEMREK received his bachelor's degree in Political Science and Public Administration from METU, his master's and doctorate degrees in Political Science and Public Administration from Bilkent University, and his post-doctoral studies at Budapest College: Institute of Higher Specialized Studies (Hungary). He taught at Bilkent, Ataturk Alatoo (Kyrgyzstan), Selçuk, El Farabi (Kazakhstan) Universities and Police Academy at various levels from undergraduate to doctoral. He was the Founding Director of the Eurasian Research Institute of Ahmet Yesevi International University (Kazakhstan). Çemrek, who was the Head of Department at Selçuk University, is currently the Head of Department, Director of Erol Güngör Turkish Diaspora Research and Application Center and Coordinator of University Erasmus Program at Necmettin Erbakan University. Çemrek, who has written articles, reviews and book chapters in many national and international journals in Turkish and English, is on the board of editors, referees and scientific advisors of many academic journals.

Prof. Dr. Emre İşeri, Yaşar Üniversitesi, İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, İzmir, Türkiye.

Ali Onur Özçelik is a Professor and full-time Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Eskişehir Osmangazi University. He holds an MA in Transatlantic Relations from the University of Birmingham and a PhD in Politics from the University of Sheffield. His earlier work has focused on Europeanization and multi-level governance, particularly in the context of Turkish subnational administrations.
Professor Özçelik’s research interests encompass the politics of non-state actors, transnational social movements, diplomacy practiced by non-state and partially recognized actors, and the European Union’s Neighborhood Policy. In recent years, his scholarship has expanded to include themes such as globalization, the transformation of world order, and the rise of transactionalism in international relations.
He is the co-editor of three academic volumes: The World Community and the Arab Spring (Palgrave Macmillan), EU Conditionality in Turkey: When Does It Work? When Does It Fail? (Rowman & Littlefield), and Reconfiguring EU Peripheries: Political Elites, Contestation and Geopolitical Shifts (Helsinki University Press). Professor Özçelik has also been actively involved in several EU- and UN-funded research and youth projects, reflecting his sustained engagement with transnational governance and global policy processes.

Prof. Dr. F. Didem Ekinci completed her B.A in 1999 at Hacettepe University, and her M.A and Ph.D. on International Relations at İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University in 2002 and 2009, respectively. She has been full-time faculty member since 2009 and head of Political Science and International Relations Department since 2021. Her courses and publications mostly cover foreign policy analysis, IR theories, politics in the Balkans the Caucasus, Russian foreign policy, conflict resolution, among others. Dr. Ekinci has served as Director of Çankaya University Research and Application Center for Atatürk Principles and Revolution History for five years. She is the author of the book Russia and the Balkans after the Cold War. Dr. Ekinci’s foreign language proficiencies: English – Professional, French - C1; Russian - C2; German - A2.