Pnina Werbner

Biography

Pınar is a research fellow at the Conflict Resolution and Mediation Stream at the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) as well as a lecturer at the Conflict Analysis and Resolution Program at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabancı University. She was a lecturer at the Department of International Relations and Vice Director at Center for International Conflict Resolution, Yalova University between 2010 and 2014. Pınar was a visiting scholar at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University between February and March 2013.

During her academic career, Pinar has given seminars on conflict resolution and mediation to foreign junior diplomats at the Diplomatic Academy of the Turkish Foreign Ministry – a programme hosted by the IPC – as well the Model Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Conferences. During 2012, she was a sessional tutor at the School of Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy (SPIRE), Keele University, and coordinated the seminars on modern Turkey in SPIRE. This programme was sponsored by the Center for Strategic Research, Turkish Foreign Ministry.

She was Vice-Coordinator of the Intellectuals Forum at the 4th United Nations Conference on the lesser developed countries in 2011. Prior to her work in academia, Pınar worked for a range of civil society organisations in the areas of peace, democracy, and environment.

Her research interests include conflict resolution, peace-building, international mediation, Turkish foreign policy, and the Middle East. She is particularly interested in the use of mediation as a tool of foreign policy and the state-NGO interaction in peace-building.

Further information

Membership of Professional Associations

Alliance for Peacebuilding;

American Political Science Association.

Research Project Summary

Pınar’s PhD thesis is entitled ‘An emerging mediator on the periphery: Turkey's mediations in the Syrian-Israeli talks and in Somalia’ that focuses on Turkey's difference as a mediator from the United States in the Israeli-Syrian peace talks and from Britain and Norway in the Somali peace process.

Selected Publications/Conferences

Akpinar, P (forthcoming) “Mediation as a Foreign Policy Tool in the Arab Spring: Turkey, Qatar and Iran,” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies.

Akpinar, P. (2015) “The Role of Humanitarian NGOs in Turkey's Peacebuilding,” International Peacekeeping, DOI:10.1080/13533312.2015.1033374 (with Bülent Aras).

Akpinar, P. (2015) “Qatar’s Regional Aspirations: Changing Mediator Role during the Arab Spring,” Project on the Middle East and the Arab Spring Policy Brief, No.6, February 2015.
 
Akpinar, P. (2013) “Turkey’s Peacebuilding in Somalia: The Limits of Humanitarian Diplomacy,” Turkish Studies 14 (4)  735-757.
 
Akpinar, P. (2013) “Çatışma Çözümleri Perspektifinden Suriye-İsrail Meselesi [Syrian-Israeli Conflict from a Conflict Resolution Perspective],” in Nezir Akyeşilmen (ed.), Barışı Konuşmak: Teori ve Pratikte Çatışma Yönetimi [Talking About Peace: Conflict Management in Theory and Practice], Ankara: METU Publications.
 
Akpinar, P. (2011) “The Relations between Turkey and the Caucasus,” Perceptions, 16 (3),  53-68 (with Bülent Aras).
 
Akpinar, P. (2010) “Turkey’s New Foreign Policy and Its Meaning for the Middle East,” Sharq Namah (Ahmet Davutoğlu Special Edition), June 2010 (with Bülent Aras).

Akpinar, P. (2009) “Davutoğlu Dönemi Türk Dış Politikası: 2009 Değerlendirmesi” [An Evaluation of Turkish Foreign Policy during Davutoğlu Era: 2009 Assessment, Türk Dış Politikası 2009 Yıllığı [2009 Assessment of Turkish Foreign Policy], Burhanettin Duran, Kemal İnat ve Muhittin Ataman, (eds.), Ankara: SETA, 2011 (with Bülent Aras).