Çağlar Kurç is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Abdullah Gül University and the founder of the Political Science Gaming Lab. His research on defense industries examines the underlying factors shaping states’ decisions to pursue defense industrialization and the broader implications of these decisions for the global arms market. His primary research interests concern the ways in which transformations in international arms production practices and the emergence of new technologies influence states’ defense industrialization strategies and arms procurement policies.
Prior to joining Abdullah Gül University, Dr. Kurç held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research, Ihsan Dogramaci Peace Foundation, from 2018 to 2019. Between 2012 and 2013, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Security Studies Program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From 2015 to 2017, he served as a Visiting Post-Doctoral Scholar at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, in New York City. He holds an M.A. in War Studies from King’s College London and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Middle East Technical University, Ankara.