The Turkish Lecture Series brings public intellectuals of the highest caliber in the fields of Ottoman and Turkish studies, including business and trade, history, politics, and culture, to interact with Emory students and faculty and members of the Atlanta-area community.

2018 Lecture: Is Turkey a Democracy?
Monday, February 19, 2018 | 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Lullwater Ballroom, Emory Conference Center Hotel

Presented by the Halle Institute for Global Research and Learning in partnership with the American-Turkish Friendship Council.

In the fall of 2004, the European Commission recommended that Turkey begin negotiations to join the most exclusive of clubs, the European Union. Almost a decade and a half later, democratic norms and institutions are greatly weakened and the prospects for EU membership have dimmed.  How did this happen? What are the prospects for a reversal of Turkey’s authoritarian trajectory? What does Turkey’s authoritarian turn mean for its relations with the United States and Europe?

Lecture by Steven A. Cook, PhD, Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Steven A. Cook is an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S.-Middle East policy. Cook is the author of False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East; The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square, which won the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s gold medal in 2012; and Ruling But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey. Cook has published widely in foreign policy journals, opinion magazines, and newspapers, and he is a frequent commentator on radio and television. He also currently writes the blog From the Potomac to the Euphrates. Prior to joining CFR, Cook was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution (2001–2002) and a Soref research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1995–1996). Cook holds a BA in international studies from Vassar College, an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and both an MA and a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania. He speaks Arabic and Turkish and reads French.