Dr. Ömer Taşpınar is Director of the Turkey Program at the Brookings Institution and Professor of National Security Strategy at US the National War College. 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. Dr. Taşpınar is the author of two books: Political Islam and Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey (Routledge, 2005), Winning Turkey: How America, Europe, and Turkey Can Revive a Fading Partnership (with PhilipGordon) (Brookings Institution Press, 2008) and Fighting Radicalism with Human Development: The Political Economy of Education, Employment, and Freedom in the Islamic World. 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. In addition to his academic and policy work, Dr. Taspinar is also a columnist for Todays Zaman and Sabah newspapers and writes monthly for Forbes Magazines Turkish edition. Dr. Taşpınar has a Ph.D. and MA in European Studies and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and a BA in Political Science from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Dr. Taspinar speaks English, French, Italian and Turkish (native) and basic Arabic.