Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Participants,
I would like to express my great honor in participating in the 11th Istanbul Security Conference, in which I have been involved since its inception. Furthermore, it is a great honor for me to have been given the task of delivering the keynote address at the opening of the conferences for the past six years.
Welcome to our conference, where you are participating to share your thoughts and ideas. Your participation has given us strength.
Greetings. We are together once again at the eleventh Istanbul Security Conference and its accompanying events. This annual period has continued without interruption to date. We have continued it under very diverse conditions and at very different times. As we have always stated, without any concern for popularity, we are working, with your unique contributions, to further institutionalize it as a "school."
The "structural rivalry" between the United States and China has entered a period of tactical quiescence. While the leaders' summit held in Busan, South Korea, may appear on the surface to be a futile attempt at détente, the very fact that Trump was compelled to sit at the negotiating table can be read as a significant conjunctural victory for China.
The 11th Istanbul Security Conference, organized under the theme "Defense, Security, and Intelligence Revolution," concluded with the participation of numerous prominent figures and experts from Turkey and abroad.
There is just one week left till the 11th Istanbul Security Conference organized by TASAM with the theme of "Defence, Security and Intelligence Revolution”. Offering a global "school" and international "marketplace" opportunities, it will award certificates and a conference book to participants. This is the last week to register for the conference, which will feature many doyens and experts from Türkiye&abroad and will be held alongside 5 security-themed co-events.
The EU’s SAFE (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform)¹ initiative promises substantial funding for strengthening Europe’s defence industrial base. However, participation in SAFE cannot come at the expense of Türkiye’s strategic interests, especially given politicization attempts by Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA; i.e. Southern part of the island of Cyprus).
Every 10 November, Türkiye pauses at 09:05 to commemorate the passing of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye. Eighty-seven years after his death, his ideas, leadership style and statecraft remain strikingly relevant—not only for Türkiye, but for a world once again drifting into geopolitical turbulence.
Today’s international system is neither fully unipolar nor genuinely multipolar. As Amitav
Acharya aptly puts it, it resembles a multi-room theatre more than a chessboard.
Following the end of the Cold War, Pax Americana established a US-led global order.
Washington set the rules through its political, economic, and military reach, while its allies-often enthusiastically—reinforced this architecture.
The European Union (EU) has structured its migration management in the post-2015 period
largely on a security-centric approach. Following the 2015 refugee crisis, the EU's migration
management strategies have largely focused on border control and externalization policies,
leading to human rights violations and deviations from international protection standards.
Edward Said famously observed that the ‘East’ exists not as a geographical fact but as a constructed image in the Western imagination.
This image continues to permeate the contemporary political discourse.
The following words by Tom Barrack, the US Ambassador to Ankara and Special Representative for Syria, reignited debates over the sociopolitical foundations of Middle Eastern politics:
“There is no such thing as the Middle East. There are tribes and villages in the region...
Army installations within the lower 48 states will have operating nuclear microreactors starting in the fall of 2028 if the Army’s Janus program moves forward on schedule. The addition of nuclear power will diversify the energy sources available on military bases and provide a critical enhancement to their resiliency, the Army says.
We are at the beginning of developments where the Metaverse environment, which brings together the virtual and real worlds, is becoming three-dimensional, and where studies in the field of cyber intelligence will provide intelligence platforms with vastly different functions, potentially revolutionizing our overall perspective on intelligence.
The Turkish Petroleum Corporation’s (TPAO) international subsidiary, Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company (TPOC), will participate in offshore oil and natural gas exploration in Pakistan’s Northern Indus C Offshore Basin located in the Indian Ocean.
Lao Tzu says, “Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Misunderstandings and ill-conceived calculations can push even great powers into situations they never intended to enter. John Bolton—who served as U.S. national security advisor during President Trump’s first term—recently said in a talk at the Harvard Kennedy School that “the United States misunderstood China.“
China’s vision of global hegemony has become a central feature of the 21st-century geopolitics. Russia is often cast as a partner in this project. Both governments argue that a more multipolar and fairer international order is attainable, being less a new construction than a partial restoration of what they claim the global system should be.
Istanbul hosted a highly significant event in the academic field of intelligence studies from October 10 to 12, 2025. The “International Congress on Intelligence Studies,“ organized by the National Intelligence Academy, brought together 250 academics from Turkey and around the world.
Development of domestic technology is an important feature for technological sovereignty. This is particularly the case for Deeptech. Deeptech refers to innovations rooted in breakthrough science and engineering — including quantum computing, advanced materials, robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and clean-energy technologies.
For the public good, TASAM invites researchers to submit academic articles, analytical essays, and policy briefs that analyze political, economic, security, and societal transformations at global and regional levels, contributing to the national and international academic and policy-making community.
Turkey's ascent as a significant global player has been markedly evident in its strategic
engagement with Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa. As a rising middle power, Turkey has expanded its influence through a comprehensive approach that includes diplomatic, economic, and military dimensions.
India today finds itself at the intersection of multiple geopolitical currents. Its active engagement in both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS group reflects its desire to balance great power politics with the imperatives of economic growth and regional stability. While the SCO and BRICS are often mentioned together as vehicles of the 'non-Western' or 'Global South' agenda, they are distinct in structure, scope, and purpose.
Every war serves as a catalyzer, it accelerates some of economic, social and strategic processes while it inhibits others. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russian – Ukrainian relations were often undefined from both sides and now, the war made the situation durably clear.
This study aims to analyze Turkish military presence in Africa in its new roles as a peace and security provider. Türkiye's military presence in Africa has sparked debates regarding Türkiye's great power status and the underlying lofty ambitions, as well as the potential linkages with other patterns and out-of-area military operations.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping economies, governance, and everyday life. But democratization means more than deployment—it means empowering every citizen, in every language and community, not just elite urban users. Here the access to those who have and those who have not is also a question of avoiding India’s “AI for All” approach illuminates how inclusive AI can democratize power, rather than centralizing it in global tech monopolies ( a form of techno feudalism).
In an age where every decision - operational, strategic, or customer-centric - is influenced by data, Data Governance has emerged as a critical discipline. Organisations worldwide collect, process, and store more information than ever while leveraging advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI to interpret these data streams.
Türkiye is becoming a key defense partner in Africa, offering affordable and effective support, but it must manage ethical and diplomatic challenges to sustain its role
Türkiye's relationship with the African continent has witnessed a notable escalation in recent years, commencing from the early 2000s.
_jpeg_2025_22_12_b3702079-4965-4132-8c28-6f30c62c1513.jpeg "Defense, Security, and Intelligence Revolution: Technopolitics and Demopolitics")
