Recep Onursal

Guest Author

Recep Onursal (LinkedIn – X) is an expert in international conflict analysis, specializing in peace and conflict studies, critical security studies, and international relations. His research explores global political conflicts — particularly the Kurdish conflict in the Middle East — with a focus on political violence, state behavior, and contested peace in deeply divided societies.

Fluent in Turkish and Kurdish, he employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine conflict resolution, state identity, and security. His work draws on theories of conflict resolution and critical approaches to discourse, power, and identity, offering both theoretical depth and real-world relevance.

His research has been published in leading journals such as Terrorism and Political Violence, Middle East Critique, Alternatives, and Ethnopolitics. He is also a regular contributor to The Conversation, where he writes on authoritarianism, extremism, and the Kurdish conflict.

Recep holds a PhD in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent, as well as two MSc degrees with distinction — in Conflict Resolution and in Finance and Management — from the University of Essex. He completed his undergraduate studies in Business (Finance) at Middle East Technical University in Ankara.

He has taught widely at the University of Kent, delivering undergraduate and postgraduate modules on conflict resolution, international security, terrorism, and global politics. Beyond academia, he is committed to public engagement and to bridging scholarship with policy-relevant insights.