Şuhnaz Yılmaz Özbağcı

Professor of International Relations 

Dean of College of Administrative Sciences and  Economics 

Director of Graduate School of Business 

Professor Yılmaz graduated from the International Relations Department of Bilkent University in 1993 as the Valedictorian. She received her M.A and Ph.D. from Princeton University, in 1995 and 2000, consecutively, specializing in Near Eastern Studies and International Relations. She conducted her post-doctoral Studies at Harvard University. She was a Visiting Professor at UCLA with a dual appointment at the Department of Public Policy, Luskin School of Public Affairs, and the Luskin Center for Innovation (2016-2017 ). She held visiting faculty positions at the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Stanford University and the Center for International Studies Princeton University. She received many national and international awards and grants. In 2008, she was granted the prestigious Distinguished Young Scientist Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, and in 2016, she received the Koç University Outstanding Teaching Award. She is a Professor of International Relations and currently serves as the Dean of the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics (CASE) and the Director of the Graduate School of Business (GSB), Koc University.

Her recent research focuses on international relations and strategy, foreign policy analysis, energy and natural resource politics, sustainable development, international affairs of Eurasia and the Middle East, diplomatic history, Turkish foreign policy, international conflict and cooperation, and European security and foreign policy. She has numerous publications in leading journals in her field, such as International Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Middle East Journal, Third World Quarterly, and Energy Research and Social Science. She has a book entitled Turkish-American Relations (1800-1952): Between the Stars, Stripes and the Crescent (2015) from Routledge Press International Relations Series. Her new book, Energy, Environment, and Geopolitics in Eurasia (co-author: Norman Graham), explores the energy, water, and food nexus and its implications for international strategy in a transforming global context. (Routledge, forthcoming in 2023) At the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics, she teaches courses in the field of International Relations on Turkish Foreign Policy, Turkish-American Relations, History of Political Thought, Middle Eastern Politics, and European Foreign and Security Policy. At GSB and in the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) program, Professor Yılmaz teaches courses on Foreign Policy Analysis for Global Leaders, Business-Government Relations, and the Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa.

ORCID ID  | Google Scholar | Academia

Contact Information 

Department of International Relations, CAS 249
Koç University, Sarıyer, Istanbul
Tel. 90-212-338-1668, Fax. 90-212-338-1653
syilmaz@ku.edu.tr