Skip to main content
TWI logo The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
logo
wordmark
Homepage

Main navigation

  • Analysis
  • Experts
  • About
  • Support
  • Maps & Multimedia
Trending:
  • Democracy and Reform
  • Terrorism
  • U.S. Policy
  • Gulf States
  • Lebanon
  • Turkey
  • North Africa

Regions & Countries

  • Egypt
  • Iraq
  • Iran
  • Gulf States
  • Israel
  • Palestinians
  • Lebanon
  • North Africa
  • Turkey
  • Jordan
  • Syria
  • Middle East

Issues

  • Arab and Islamic Politics
  • Democracy and Reform
  • Military and Security
  • U.S. Policy
  • Gulf and Energy Policy
  • Energy and Economics
  • Proliferation
  • Terrorism
  • Arab-Israeli Relations
  • Peace Process
TWI English
TWI Arabic: اللغة العربية TWI Persian: فارسی Fikra Forum

Breadcrumb

  • Experts

Soner Cagaptay

  • Beyer Family Fellow
  • Director, Turkish Research Program
Also available in:
  • Arabic
  • Farsi

Expertise

  • Turkey
Soner Cagaptay
Download High-Resolution Portrait

Soner Çağaptay'ın Özgeçmişi (PDF)

Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. He has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism, publishing in scholarly journals and major international print media, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and The Atlantic. He has been a regular columnist for Hürriyet Daily News, Turkey's oldest and most influential English-language paper, and a contributor to CNN's Global Public Square blog. He appears regularly on Fox News, CNN, NPR, BBC, and CNN-Turk. His latest book, Erdogan's Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East, was published in September 2019 by I.B. Tauris. His books have been translated into Turkish, Italian, Greek, and Croatian.

A historian by training, Dr. Cagaptay wrote his doctoral dissertation at Yale University (2003) on Turkish nationalism. Dr. Cagaptay has taught courses at Yale, Princeton University, Georgetown University, and Smith College on the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Eastern Europe. His spring 2003 course on modern Turkish history was the first offered by Yale in three decades. From 2006-2007, he was Ertegun Professor at Princeton University's Department of Near Eastern Studies.

Dr. Cagaptay is the recipient of numerous honors, grants, and chairs, among them the Smith-Richardson, Mellon, Rice, and Leylan fellowships, as well as the Ertegun chair at Princeton. He has also served on contract as chair of the Turkey Advanced Area Studies Program at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. In 2012 he was named an American Turkish Society Young Society Leader.

After training in India, Dr. Cagaptay is certified as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) 200 in 2018.

Soner Cagaptay
Download High-Resolution Portrait

Contact

(202) 230-9550 (media inquiries only)
(202) 452-0650 (other inquiries)
press@washingtoninstitute.org

Follow

  • https://twitter.com/SonerCagaptay twitter

Featured Publications

Erdogan's Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East
Gradually since 2003, Turkey's autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to make Turkey a great power -- in the
Jun 10, 2019
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey
In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites
Apr 24, 2017
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
The Rise of Turkey: The Twenty-First Century's First Muslim Power
Institute Turkey scholar Soner Cagaptay's guide to both the inspiring potential and the grave challenges of Turkey's transformation into a true regional and global power.
Jan 2, 2014
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who Is a Turk?
Turkish Edition Now Available Conventional wisdom holds that in the interwar period, Kemalist secularism eliminated religion from the public sphere
Jan 1, 2006
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay

Policy Articles by Soner Cagaptay

Articles & Testimony
Erdogan Will Play Biden, But Stick to Putin
Dec 9, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
In-Depth Reports
Turkey's Opposition vs. the AKP: Measuring Messaging
Dec 4, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
  • Reilly Barry
Articles & Testimony
How Europe Keeps Losing Turkey
Oct 28, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
  • Raffaella Del Sarto
Articles & Testimony
Franco-Turkish Competition Ascendant
Sep 23, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
Brief Analysis
Institute expert quoted by the New York Times on tensions between Turkey and the European Union.
Aug 3, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
Brief Analysis
Institute expert quoted by the AP on Erdogan's decision to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
Jul 24, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
All Policy Analysis
Background image with TWI branding
logo
wordmark
Homepage

1111 19th Street NW - Suite 500
Washington D.C. 20036
Tel: 202-452-0650
Fax: 202-223-5364

Footer contact links

  • Contact
  • Press Room

The Washington Institute seeks to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them.

The Institute is a 501(c)3 organization; all donations are tax-deductible.

Footer quick links

  • About TWI
  • Support the Institute

Social media

  • The Washington Institute on Facebook facebook
  • The Washington Institute on Twitter twitter
  • The Washington Institute on YouTube youtube
  • The Washington Institute on Soundcloud soundcloud

© 2021 All rights reserved.

Footer

  • Employment
  • Privacy Policy
  • Rights & Permissions