Dr. Beste Isleyen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam.
She is co-leader of the ‘Europe in the World’ theme of Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) and co-convener (with Tasniem Anwar) of the ACES Online Series ‘Decolonising Europe’.
Previously she was postdoctoral researcher in the ‘Europe and the World’ theme of ACCESS EUROPE at the University of Amsterdam (2014-2015). At ACCESS EUROPE, she worked on European Union security policies towards the Southern Mediterranean.
She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Tübingen (2014) with a scholarship by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation. Her PhD research focussed on European Union engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. As a PhD student at the University of Tübingen, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses on European Union foreign relations and peace and conflict studies. Her research interests lie in international relations, critical security studies and political sociology.
Her current research on migration and border governance in Turkey is funded by a VENI grant by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). TRANSIT examines Turkey’s governance of migration and borders. It focusses on everyday practices of what is called ‘transit’ migration in Turkey. In the context of its membership negotiations with the EU, Turkey has made a number of legal and administrative changes to ‘Europeanise’ its border and migration policies. TRANSIT explores to what extent such changes are reflected in the daily practices of migration and border governance by Turkish security and political professionals. The research also looks at the daily interaction between Turkish officials and migrants and asks how such interaction affects migrants’ decisions.
Publications
Isleyen, B. (2021). Technology and Territorial Change in Conflict Settings: Migration Control in the Aegean Sea. International Studies Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqab046
Isleyen, B., & Kreitmeyr, N. (2021). ‘Authoritarian Neoliberalism’ and Youth Empowerment in Jordan. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 15(2), 244-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2020.1812996
İşleyen, B. (2020). The European Union and Practices of Governing Space and Population in Contested States: Insights from EUPOL COPPS in Palestine. Geopolitics, 25(2), 428-448. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2018.1552946 (with Dimitris Bouris)
İşleyen, B. (2018). Building capacities, exerting power: The European Union police mission in the Palestinian Authority. Mediterranean Politics, 23(3), 321-339. DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2017.1319750
İşleyen, B. (2018). Turkey’s governance of irregular migration at European Union borders: Emerging geographies of care and control. Environment and Planning D – Society & Space, 36(5), 849-866. DOI: 10.1177/0263775818762132 [details]
İşleyen , B. (2018). Transit mobility governance in Turkey. Political Geography, 62, 23-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.09.017
Gros, V., de Goede, M., & İşleyen, B. (2017). The Snowden Files Made Public: A Material Politics of Contesting Surveillance. International Political Sociology, 11(1), 73-89. DOI: 10.1093/ips/olw031
İşleyen, B. (2017). The External Dimension of European Union Counter-Terrorism Discourse: Good Governance, the Arab “Spring” and the “Foreign Fighters”. Uluslararasi Iliskiler/Journal of International Relations, 14(55), 59-74.
İşleyen, B. (2016). Rendering Space and People Economic: Naguib Sawiris’ Refugee ‘Country’. Mediterranean Politics, 21(2), 326-330. DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2016.1145824
İşleyen, B. (2015). Governing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: The European Union Partnership for Peace. Security Dialogue, 46(3), 256-271. DOI: 10.1177/0967010615579563
İşleyen, B. (2015). The European Union and neoliberal governmentality: Twinning in Tunisia and Egypt. European Journal of International Relations, 21(3), 672-690. DOI: 10.1177/1354066114554464 [details]
İsleyen, B. (2014). Protection or prevention? Different visions of EU international terrorism policy. In C. Carta, & J. F. Morin (Eds.), EU foreign policy through the lens of discourse analysis: making sense of diversity (pp. 59-78). (The globalisation, Europe, multilateralism series). Farnham: Ashgate. [details]
İsleyen, B. (2008). The Role of the European Union in the Middle East Peace Process: A Civilian Power? Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag.