Profile

Tuncay Babali, PhD, Ass.Prof. of Pol. Sci. was a former Ambasador of Turkiye to Canada (2012-14). He served as Director of Human Resurces of the MFA of Turkey (2011-12). Former fellow at the Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (2009-2010). Dr. Babali has formerly served as Counselor of the Turkish Embassies in Washington, D.C. and London, United Kingdom. Previously, he was Deputy Chief of Cabinet to the 10th President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, counseling on foreign policy issues, contributing to speech writing and preparing presidential level state visits to various foreign countries, setting agenda and scheduling for the president. Dr. Babali has also served in the Turkish Consulate General in Houston, Texas as the vice counsel, and second secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

During his early career, he also seconded and worked in the Deputy Directorate General of the Energy, Water and Environmental Issues where he embarked on working academically and professionally on bilateral and multilateral energy issues/projects.

Mr. Babali earned his PhD from the University of Houston and has a MA degree on diplomatic studies from the University of London, School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS). He holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey. While at Harvard he has pursued research on Russian resurgent foreign policy tools: energy, security and economy; and realistic assessment of their impact on its near abroad policy. He has written extensively on Caspian energy, shale gas on North America and Balkan geopolitics including several books and book chapters on Caspian Energy Diplomacy and bilateral relations with Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.