Sibel Oktay

About Sibel Oktay

Sibel Oktay is a nonresident senior fellow of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Deputy Chair of Multilateral Diplomacy at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State.

Oktay studies the domestic politics of foreign policy and the role of leadership in policy-making with regional interests in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. She is the author of Governing Abroad: Coalition Politics and Foreign Policy in Europe (University of Michigan Press, 2022), which received the Best Book in Foreign Policy Analysis Award from the International Studies Association. Her peer-reviewed articles appear in journals such as International Studies Perspectives, Journal of European Public Policy, European Journal of Political Research, and European Security, among others. Her current research investigates when and how alliance rhetoric shapes policy preferences among the elites and the public, in collaboration with the Council’s Paul Poast, Dina Smeltz, and Craig Kafura.

As a frequent media contributor, Oktay's analysis and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, NPR, Voice of America, BBC World, The Hill, The Conversation, Vox, and War On The Rocks, as well as in other news outlets in Brazil, Canada, Greece, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.  

Oktay received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Between 2014 and 2024, she was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Springfield, most recently as an associate professor of political science and inaugural director of the School of Politics and International Affairs. Oktay was a 2023-2024 Jefferson Science Fellow at the State Department and a 2019-2020 Public Voices Fellow of the University of Illinois. She served on the Foreign Policy section boards of the International Studies Association and the American Political Science Association in several capacities, including as conference program organizer and president. She currently serves on the editorial board of the journal, International Studies Quarterly and on the Governing Council of the International Studies Association.