Assoc. Prof. MERVE SEREN YEŞİLTAŞ

Biography

She had worked in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as a Parliamentary Advisor, between 2005 and 2015. Also, she worked as a researcher in the Security Studies Department of SETA (2015-2017) and as a senior consultant in ThinkTech of STM (2017-2018) where she was responsible for war gaming as well as researching issues related to defense, security, and intelligence such as air and missile defense systems, UAV technology, cyber threats, and military spending. As of May 2018, Seren has been working as a lecturer (Associate Professor) in Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (Department of International Relations) and also as a visiting scholar teaching strategic intelligence and wargaming in various postgraduate schools.   

Seren was accepted to the “U.S. Legislative Fellow” Program which was co-sponsored by Freedom House and the National Democratic Institute, funded by the U.S. Department of State. Besides, she was selected as a member of “The Atlantic Council’s Young Atlanticist” NATO Working Group and attended the GLOBSEC Bratislava as well as to NATO Young Atlanticist Summit held on the outskirts of the NATO Summit in Chicago. She was additionally, chosen to the “First Middle-East Generational Ambassadors Summit” hosted by Richardson Center, co-sponsored by Aspen Institute, also to the “Youth Ministerial Meeting”, organized by Atlantic Treaty Association in collaboration with NATO Public Diplomacy Division.  Furthermore, chosen to the “2017 Munich Young Leaders”, a joint initiative of the Körber Foundation and Munich Security Conference, and also to “2018 Taiwan International Elite Leadership” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan). Also, selected as “2019 Southeast Asian Young Leader” and invited to participate in the 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue.  

She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Public Administration from Bilkent University and an M.A. in European Union from Başkent University while pursuing her Erasmus Scholarship at Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universität Bonn, Germany. She entered the International Security and Terrorism Department’s Ph.D. program at the Turkish Military Academy and completed the program but then attended to Turkish Police Academy as a Ph.D. candidate where she defended her doctoral dissertation on strategic intelligence and national security.