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MAGDALENA KIRCHNER icon down
Magdalena Kirchner
Magdalena Kirchner
2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellow

Magdalena Kirchner is a Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellow in International Relations and Security (TAPIR) at the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit global policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to that, she had been a TAPIR fellow at the International Security Division of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and an Associate Fellow at the German Council of Foreign Relations (DGAP), both in Berlin. She has worked as Senior Project Coordinator at the German Atlantic Association, where she currently serves as associated board member as the chairwoman of the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA) Germany. Since 2009, Kirchner has served as editor for the Security Policy Reader, published by the Federal Ministry of Defense.

Kirchner studied political science and history at the Universities of Heidelberg and Aarhus and holds a doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg. Following her recently published dissertation, “Why States Rebel: Understanding State Sponsorship of Terrorism,” her research focuses on conflict research and foreign policy analysis in the context of international crisis management with a special focus on the Levant, Iraq, and Turkey. At the University of Heidelberg, she was lecturer at the Institute for Political Science, headed the Working Group "Conflicts in the Middle East and Maghreb" at the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, and gained international work experience in Turkey, Israel, and Jordan.

Project: “Rising to the Occasion? Turkey and Germany in Transatlantic Crisis Management”

As external security shocks and transnational challenges meet changed intra-alliance expectations of burden-sharing and new opportunities for tailor-made policies, both Germany and Turkey have recently adjusted their policies and positions from bystanders to “leaders from the center.” And yet, to what extent does the observed trend towards more foreign policy activism coincide with enhanced opportunities for “successfully tackling new challenges together?” Three questions will be addressed successively: First, how are different strategies of external crisis management framed in public and elite discourses, especially with regards to the concept of responsibility? Debates on foreign policy activism and even assertiveness have been closely linked to a perception of Europe’s Southeastern neighborhood shaped by endemic crisis and instability. And yet, a national, or even international, consensus on how to contain crisis or even shape regional developments according to their respective national interests has not been articulated yet. To what extent are these changed foreign policy debates accompanied by policy adjustments and the development of new instruments in crisis management? Do “no-strings-attached” strategies in interstate security cooperation like the establishment of informal “Coalitions of the Willing” constitute the new normal? With regard to Turkey’s and Germany’s joint yet not formalized capacity building alignment with the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, the project also addresses the question of how new partnerships in an uncertain security environment can be managed, on the one hand, and negative cooperation effects reduced, on the other.

Welcoming of the 2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellows

We welcome our 2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellows, Magdalena Kirchner, Sarah Louise Nash, Wiebke Hohberger, Kristen Biehl, Tuğba Ağaçayak ve Emre Üçkardeşler.

Magdalena Kirchner | Rising to the Occasion? Turkey and Germany in Transatlantic Crisis Management

Sarah Louise Nash | The Politics of the Climate Change and Migration Nexus: Taking the UNFCCC Task Force to Task

Wiebke Hohberger | Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Current Approaches of State and Non-State Integration Efforts and Possibilities for Turkish-German Joint Projects

Kristen Biehl | Examining Policy Formations and Everyday Realities of Refugee Integration in Turkey

Tuğba Ağaçayak | Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Waste and Agriculture Sectors and its Multi-level Governance in Turkey

Emre Üçkardeşler | A Framework for Long-term Education and Integration Strategies

"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?" with Karolina Augustova and Magdalena Kirchner

Karolina Augustova and Magdalena Kirchner were hosted by Pelin Oğuz at the 73rd episode of “Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” program titled "Afghanistan in Transition: Implications for Turkey" organized by the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative in cooperation with Medyascope. 

Please click here for the event.

Hub or Spoke? NATO's Role in Allied Projecting Stability Efforts on the Southern Flank

2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellow Magdalena Kirchner organized a conference titled “Hub or Spoke? NATO’s Role in Allied Projecting Stability Efforts on the Southern Flank” at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin, with the support of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, on March 15–16, 2018.

Welcoming of the 2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellows

The Welcoming of the 2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 10 at the Seed, Sakıp Sabancı Museum. The extension of the Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative until 2021 was also announced during the event.

The event began with the welcoming remarks by IPC Director Fuat Keyman and followed by remarks from the Chairman of the Advisory Board at Stiftung Mercator, Rüdiger Frohn. An alumni movie, which exhibited former Mercator-IPC Fellows and their projects, was screened after the welcoming remarks. The 2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellows were introduced to the audience through another movie screening. The movie presented the 2016/17 Mercator-IPC Fellows Kristen Biehl, Wiebke Hohberger, Magdalena Kirchner, Emre Üçkardeşler, Tuğba Ağaçayak, and Sarah Louise Nash and their projects. After the event ended, the distinguished guests enjoyed a meet and greet open buffet dinner.