Dr. Deniz İstikbal is a faculty member at Istanbul Medipol University. He completed his undergraduate studies in Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul University in 2016 and earned a master’s degree in International Political Economy from Marmara University in 2018, with a thesis titled “Political Economy Analysis of the Development Plans of South Korea and Turkey.” In 2024, he completed his Ph.D. at Istanbul University with a dissertation on “Chinese Investments in Africa: Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa (2005-2019).”