Dr. Oktay F. Tanrisever is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations of the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He is also the Chairperson of the Area Studies PhD Program at the same university. After graduating from the BSc and MSc programs in International Relations of the Middle East Technical University, he received his PhD degree from the University of London. His publications in English, Turkish and Russian cover the following topics: Turkey’s energy diplomacy, Turkey’s relations with Russia and other post-Soviet states, regional politics in the Black Sea, the Caucasus and Central Asia, management of ethnic conflicts and theories of international relations.