Magdalena Kirchner

Magdalena Kirchner, Mercator-IPC Fellow at Sabanci University’s Istanbul Policy Center, is a political scientist and conflict researcher specializing in transatlantic security and foreign policy, crisis management and Turkey. Previously, she held research positions inter alia at the RAND Corporation in Arlington, VA, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the German Institute for International Affairs and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies in Tel Aviv as well as the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) in Ankara, Turkey. Prior to that, she taught politics at her alma mater, the University of Heidelberg, and led the Working Group & Conflicts in the Middle East and Maghreb at the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK). In the past years, she has testified as an expert witness in several high-profile counter-terrorism trials in Germany and her comments on international security issues were published by international media outlets such as the BBC, DailyStar Lebanon, Deutsche Welle (Arabic, Turkish, German ), Politico, Tagesschau and Tagesspiegel.