Prof. Özden Zeynep Oktav graduated from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, and served as an Associate Professor and Professor at Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, for 17 years. She is currently a Professor at Istanbul Medeniyet University. Prof. Oktav is the author of several books, including Türkiye in the 21st Century: Quest for a New Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), Limits of Relations with the West: Turkey, Syria, and Iran (Beta, 2008), and The Changing Dynamics of the Arab Gulf and Saudi Arabia-US-Iran Relations (Beta, 2011). She also co-edited Violent Non-State Actors and Syrian Civil War: The ISIS and YPG Cases (Springer, 2018), GCC-Turkey Relations: Dawn of a New Era (GRC Press, 2015), and 2000’li Yıllarda Türk Dış Politikası: Fırsatlar, Riskler ve Krizler.
Prof. Oktav has published extensively on Türkiye-Middle East relations. She was awarded the Government of Türkiye Council of Higher Education scholarship in 2011 and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) scholarship in 2013. She was a visiting researcher at Cambridge University and St. Andrews University in 2011 and 2013, respectively, and received the Rectorship Special Academic Award in 2011.