The Rumi Forum presented “Headscarf Debate in Europe and Turkey” with Dr. Omer Taspinar Director of the Turkey Program, Brookings Institution Professor, National War College.
Dr. Ömer Taşpınar is Professor of National Security Strategy at U.S. the National War College and Director of the Turkey Program at the Brookings Institution. Prior to joining Brookings in 2003 he was an Assistant Professor in the European Studies Department of the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He has previously held consulting positions at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in Washington, and at the Strategic Planning Department of FIAT in Istanbul.
Dr. Taşpınar is the author of two books: Political Islam and Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey (Routledge, 2005) and Fighting Radicalism with Human Development: The Political Economy of Education, Employment, and Freedom in the Islamic World (Brookings, forthcoming 2008). Dr. Taşpınar has a Ph.D. and M.A. in European Studies and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and a B.A. in Political Science from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.
His research focuses on Turkey-EU and Turkish-American relations; European Politics; Transatlantic relations; Muslims in Europe; Islamic Radicalism; Human Development in the Islamic world; and American Foreign Policy in the Middle East. The courses Dr. Taşpınar has been teaching at the National War College include “Islam and the West”; “Non-Military Elements of Statecraft” ; “Turkey and its Neighbors”. Dr. Taspinar speaks French, Italian and Turkish (native) and basic Arabic.
In addition to his academic and policy work, Dr. Taspinar is also a columnist for Today’s Zaman, Taraf newspaper and Forbes Magazine’s Turkish edition.