Ziya Meral is a UK based Turkish-British academic and advisor. He specialises on global trends shaping defence and security, politics and foreign policies of Turkey and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, religion and violent conflict issues. He i
a Lecturer in International Studies and Diplomacy
at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London. He is also a Senior Associate Fellow senior associate fellow a
the Royal United Services Institute
a Visiting Fellow of the Royal Navy's Strategic Studies Centre, an
a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network
He is the co-founder and Senior Associate of the Climate Change and (In)Security project, a joint initiative of the UK Army and University of Oxford and was a Council Member of the British Institute at Ankara. From 2015-2023, he was based at the UK Army's Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he led a large programme on global trends impacting UK defense, which commissioned and hosted more than 140 academics and experts at events for more than 9,000 UK defence personnel. Dr Ziya Meral continues to lecture on international security trends at the UK Army's Junior Officers Tactical Awareness Course. He was the founding director of the Centre on Religion and Global Affairs- a London, Accra and Beirut based initiative exploring impact of religions on global developments. He regularly gives talks, lectures and expert statements at leading academic, political, military and diplomatic institutions and conferences, including the

UK House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

and

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

, US State Department, NATO Defence College, EU Commission, UK FCDO and MoD and US Military Academy West Point. During 2010–2011, he was a Joseph Crapa Fellow at the

US Commission on International Religious Freedom The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF commissioners are appointed by the president and the lead ...

(USCIRF)- a federal body that produces policy proposals for the US government, researching on prevention of ethno-religious violence.

Education

He holds a 1st Class BA Hons from

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, M.Div. from International School of Theology in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, MSc in sociology from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

and a Ph.D. in political science at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

.University of Cambridge
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Media

He is a frequent commentator in international and British media, including live interviews on

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

, BBC News,

BBC World BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

, France 24 and BBC Radio's the Today Programme. He has been cited by various British and international newspapers on developments in Turkey and Middle East, including the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Atlantic, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, the CNN, the National Geographic, the Times.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meral, Ziya British Christians Turkish Christians Living people Turkish economists Turkish political scientists Turkish emigrants to the United Kingdom Year of birth missing (living people)