About
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
Expert

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, as well as a Global Opinions columnist at The Washington Post and a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Prior to joining the foreign policy community in 2016, Aydıntaşbaş had a long career in journalism, during which she focused on Turkey, its domestic evolution, and foreign policy in an age of regional reshuffling and geopolitical competition. Aydıntaşbaş combined her tenure in Turkish media with overseas assignments and international commentary, straddling between Turkey and the U.S.

In her Global Opinion columns for The Washington Post, Aydıntaşbaş tried to document Turkey’s emergence as a regional power with a quest for strategic autonomy, the changing nature of Turkey’s relations with its trans-Atlantic partners, as well as the domestic pushback against the country’s democratic backsliding. Aydıntaşbaş contextualized Turkey’s drift towards illiberalism with the decline of the rules-based liberal international order and the onset of great power competition, facilitated domestically by the rebirth of a non-aligned Turkish ideology.

Aydıntaşbaş is a regular commentator on Turkey for international media and her articles have appeared in the The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Forbes, Politico, and Newsweek. Aydıntaşbaş wrote a regular bi-weekly column at Turkish daily Cumhuriyet (2016-18), at Milliyet (2008-15), and hosted the popular daily television show, Karşı Gündem on CNN Turk (2013-15), which featured discussions on Turkey’s domestic polarization, reforms, as well as regional issues like the Arab Spring. Aydıntaşbaş has covered Turkey’s EU accession process, reform agenda, relations with Washington, the United Nations, and the Iraq war in various stints during 1997-2008 as a Washington and New York correspondent as well as an Ankara bureau chief.

As a senior policy fellow at ECFR, she worked on similar themes, with a particular focus on Turkey’s relations with the European Union, with Russia, and its re-positioning in the Middle East and North Africa region. As Ankara’s traditional focus on trans-Atlantic ties was revised for a more assertive and autonomous regional positioning, Aydıntaşbaş explored Turkey’s policy on Syria, its military deployment in Libya and state of relations with neighbors.

Her recent publications at ECFR included, “Acts of Normality: the Potential for Turkey-Armenia Rapprochement” (2022), “New energies: How the European Green Deal can save the EU’s relationship with Turkey” (2021), and “Useful enemies: How the Turkey-UAE rivalry is remaking the Middle East” (2021). She has been an occasional contributor to ECFR’s “The World in 30 Minutes” podcast and a frequent contributor to the website.

Aydıntaşbaş is a graduate of Bates College, where she was the recipient of Maung Maung Gyi Award for Excellence in International Relations and received her master’s in journalism and Middle East studies at New York University.

Affiliations:

  • Berlin Bosphorus Initiative, member, advisory board
  • Economic and Foreign Relations Board, member
  • European Council on Foreign Relations, senior policy fellow
  • Istanbul Citizens Council, board member
  • Current Positions

    • Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations
    • Columnist, Global Opinions, Washington Post
  • Past Positions

    • Columnist, Cumhuriyet
    • Columnist, Milliyet
    • Anchor of "Karsi Gundem", CNN Turk
    • Senior Account Executive, Fleishman Hillard
  • Education

    • M.A., New York University, 2000
    • B.A., Bates College, 1993
  • Languages

    • English
    • Turkish

Media and Appearances

In their “Swamp Chronicles” series, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Jeremy Shapiro talk to Dan Caldwell about what a more restrained, isolationist foreign policy in a second Trump administration...

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Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Jeremy Shapiro are joined by Norman Eisen on the latest episode of “Swamp Chronicles” to discuss the complexities of the U.S. presidential race and the threats to...

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In the latest episode of “Swamp Chronicles,” Senator Chris Murphy joins the show to discuss America’s crisis of loneliness and the significance of advancing a post-neoliberal agenda in a...

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In the first episode of ECFR’s new “Swamp Chronicles” podcast in the run-up to the U.S. election, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Jeremy Shapiro speak with Robert Kagan to discuss what a second...

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FoxNews April 16, 2024

I think in the short run, nothing changes in Turkey because the election was not about the government, it was about local government…The government gets to run the country still, but,..."

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The Washington Post April 2, 2024

Until you can convince voters that you can deliver for them, just the outrage and grandstanding about democracy is not enough.

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The Washington Post May 15, 2023

[Early results from Turkey’s presidential election showed the] populist-nationalist narrative is effective in every country. Liberalism is structurally disadvantaged against populist..."

Financial Times May 13, 2023

People want to see someone who can govern Turkey during tumultuous times. Erdoğan is saying, “I’m the only guy who can steer this ship to a safe harbour in stormy weather.”

CNN May 12, 2023

This is the most tense moment I have seen in Turkish society… [The elections] are going to be about the future direction of the country and two radically different visions of where..."

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