Dr. Ilke Toygür is Analyst of European Affairs at Elcano Royal Institute and CATS Fellow in German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP Berlin). She also teaches “Geopolitics of Europe” at University Carlos III of Madrid. Her main research areas include European integration, EU institutions, political parties and elections in Western Europe, Geopolitics of Europe and transatlantic relations, and Turkey’s relations with the West. At the beginning of her career, she worked in Istanbul and Brussels for Economic Development Foundation (IKV), a Turkish think-tank focusing on the European Union and Turkey-EU relations. In 2016, she completed her PhD degree in Political Science in the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Autonomous University of Madrid. Right before completing her PhD, she was granted the prestigious Mercator-IPC Fellowship in Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University. Ilke has been a Visiting Researcher in European University Institute (EUI), University of Mannheim, and Brookings Institution. She is a Fellow of Transatlantic Relations Initiative of the IE University and serves as a Board Member of Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA). Her analyses appeared in Brookings Institution, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Foreign Affairs and El País, among others. She frequently comments on current developments in Europe on international media. She is native in Turkish and also speaks fluent English and Spanish.

Fun fact: Ilke spent hours every week for eight months during the pandemic learning more about European cinema from 1920s to today.