Dr. Ilke Toygür is the Director of IE Global Policy Center, and Professor of Geopolitics of Europe at the School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs. She is also a Senior Associate at the CSIS Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program and Mercator Fellow.
Her main areas of expertise include European integration, EU institutions, elections and democracy in Western Europe, geopolitics of Europe, transatlantic relations, and Turkey’s relations with the West. She also serves as an elected board member of the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) in Brussels. She holds a BA degree and an MA degree in Economics, an MA degree in Democracy and Government and a PhD in Political Science.
Dr. Toygür began her career back in 2008 working at the Economic Development Foundation (IKV), a research institute focusing on the European Union. In 2016, she completed her PhD degree in Political Science at Autonomous University of Madrid. Her doctoral research focused on the impact of European integration on the vote and party system change in Western Europe in times of crises. In 2015 she was granted Mercator-IPC Fellowship in Istanbul Policy Center. Following her PhD, she worked for the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid, and for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Brussels. She has also been a Lecturer at the University Carlos III of Madrid and Visiting Researcher at the European University Institute (EUI), University of Mannheim, and Brookings Institution.
Her research and articles have so far appeared in Carnegie Europe, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Brookings Institution, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Der Spiegel and El País, among others. She frequently comments on European affairs in the international media. She is native in Turkish and speaks fluent English and Spanish.
Main publications
The Granada Summit of the European Political Community: Ambition or Oblivion?
(Co-authored with Mathieu Droin) – Center for Strategic & International Studies (October 2023, English)
The Chisinau Summit: A Litmus Test for Moldova and the EPC (Co-authored with Mathieu Droin) – Center for Strategic & International Studies (May 2023, English)
A Continent Forged in Crisis: Assessing Europe One Year into the War (Co-authored with Max Bergmann and Otto Svendsen) – Center for Strategic & International Studies (February 2023, English)
Transatlantic Cooperation to Counterbalance China Needs More Nuances – Center for Strategic & International Studies (December 2022, English)
The rise of mega-regions (Co-authored with Zachary Paikin, Martin Quencez and Stephen R. Nagy) – Center for European Policy Studies (December 2022, English)
Flexible ‘EU-centricness’ is the key ingredient to ensure the European Political Community’s success – Center for European Policy Studies (October 2022, English)
Who Should the United States Call in Europe? (Co-authored with Max Bergmann) – Center for Strategic & International Studies (October 2022, English)
The EU Isn’t Ready for Ukraine to Join (Co-authored with Max Bergmann) Foreign Policy (September 2022, English)
Competing options for EU enlargement – EUobserver (June 2022, English)
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Unity is good, but ambition is better (Co-authored with Sophie Pornschlegel) – European Policy Center (June 2022, English)
Why is there no place for strategic ambiguity this time around on the European continent? – German Institute for International and Security Affairs (March 2022, English)
Turkey’s foreign policy and its consequences for the EU (Co-authored with Funda Tekin, Eduard Soler i Lecha and Nicholas Danforth) – European Parliament, Directorate-General for External Policies (February 2022, English)
A New Way Forward for EU-Turkey Relations – Carnegie Europe (January 2022, English)
How to ‘Europeanise’ the upcoming French EU presidency? (Co-authored with Nicoletta Pirozzi and Funda Tekin) – EUobserver (December 2021, English)
What’s in the German ballot box for European integration? Continuity and change (Co-authored with Funda Tekin) – Real Instituto Elcano (October 2021, English)
Embracing Biden’s Democracy Agenda? Start with Turkey – German Institute for International and Security Affairs (June 2021, English)
Can the Conference on the Future of Europe prevent another #SofaGate? – Real Instituto Elcano (May 2021, English)
‘We finally have our Conference on the Future of Europe!’: now, what do we do with it? – Real Instituto Elcano (March 2021, English)
After the European Council: is there a formula for stability with an unpredictable Turkey? – Real Instituto Elcano (March 2021, English)
No Easy Reset: Time for Europe to Clarify Its Relationship with Turkey – German Institute for International and Security Affairs (February 2021, English)
The Portuguese Presidency: striking the balance between unfinished business and leaving its own mark (Co-authored with Nicoletta Pirozzi and Funda Tekin) – Real Instituto Elcano (January 2021, English)