Dr Burcu Ozcelik

Dr Burcu Ozcelik is a Senior Research Fellow for Middle East Security within the International Security department at RUSI.

With over 15 years’ experience in geopolitical risk analysis, security and threat assessments, and strategic advisory in both the public and private sector, Burcu specialises in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean. Prior to joining RUSI, Burcu worked as an Associate Director at a London-based consultancy firm leading the MENA practice. She previously worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Her research sits at the intersection of the international relations of the Middle East, political theories of recognition, reconciliation and democratisation and contributes to a critical literature on the crisis and evolution of state sovereignty, the role of non-state actors, extremist ideologies, and the politics of borders and territoriality in the Middle East.

Burcu holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and subsequently held the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the Department of Politics and International Studies where she taught Conflict, Peacebuilding, and the Politics of the Middle East. She has extensive experience with Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Israel.

Her peer-reviewed article, ‘What Can a Political Form of Reconciliation Look Like in Divided Societies? The Deliberative “Right to Justification” and Agonistic Democracy’, was awarded the inaugural Iris Young & David Held International Prize in Democratic Theory.