He earned his B.A. from İstanbul University Department of History in 1992, M.A. from the International Islamic University in Malaysia in 1994 and Ph.D. from the George Washington University in human sciences and comparative philosophy in 2002.
He taught at the George Washington University, College of the Holy Cross and Bilkent University on Islamic thinking and Islam-West relations. He was the founding chairman of SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, one of Türkiye’s leading think tanks, during 2005-2009.
He was appointed as the chief foreign policy advisor to the Prime Minister in 2009. He established and was the Coordinator of the Office of Public Diplomacy in 2010.
He was a council member of Ahmet Yesevi International Turkish–Kazakh University and the Turkish–Japanese Science and Technology University.
He was the Deputy Undersecretary for Foreign Relations and Public Diplomacy at the Office of the Prime Minister in 2012.
He was appointed Ambassador and Spokesperson of the Presidency by the President in 2014.
He was appointed as the Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency, which includes the Strategy Directorate and the International Relations Directorate, in 2014.
He lectured M.A. students on Islamic philosophy at Ibn Haldun University between 2019 and 2022. He was given the title of professor in 2020.
He was the Acting Chairman of the Presidential Council for Security and Foreign Policy and Chief Advisor for Security and Foreign Politics of the Presidency between 2018 and 2023.
He took on important tasks in the fields of foreign policy, international relations and security during his terms of office in various state echelons.
He was commissioned as the special envoy by President Erdoğan during the fighter jet crisis between Türkiye and RF in 2015.
He took diplomatic initiatives as President Erdoğan’s special envoy to resolve the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and UAE in 2017.
He played an active role in bringing the sides together for negotiations during the Ukrainian War, signing of the İstanbul Initiative, putting into practice of the Black Sea Grain Deal, and exchanging of prisoners between the two sides.
He was the head of the Turkish delegation to the Permanent Joint Mechanism during the process of Sweden and Finland’s memberships to NATO.
He paid visits with the aim of developing relations with the Turkish World, Balkan, Middle Eastern and Northern African countries.
He was assigned to the delegations in the diplomatic negotiations for political solutions in Libya and Syria.
He participated in the diplomatic negotiation processes to resolve the conflicts with Greece in the East Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. He represented Türkiye in the mechanism established between the two countries.
He played an active role in the normalization process of Türkiye’s relations with Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE, and Armenia.
He contributed, in diplomatic terms, to the development of the bilateral relations with actors such as USA, EU countries, RF, PRC, and India.
As the Presidential Spokesperson, he regularly kept the public opinion advised of the developments. The interviews with him, his articles and comments were published by the national and international press. He gave lectures at the national and international institutions.
He is the author of books and articles on the Turkish foreign policy, politics, philosophy, and history of civilization.
• İslam ve Batı (Islam and the West) (Published by İSAM, 2007; Writers Association of Turkey award for the best book in 2007; translated into Greek and Albanian)
• Akıl ve Erdem: Türkiye’nin Toplumsal Muhayyilesi (Wisdom and Virtue: Türkiye’s Social Imagination) (Published by Küre, 2013)
• Varlık ve İdrak: Molla Sadra’nın Bilgi Tasavvuru (Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sadra on Existence, Intellect and Intuition) (Oxford University Press, 2010)
• Ben, Öteki ve Ötesi: İslam-Batı İlişkileri Tarihine Giriş (Me, the Other and Beyond: Introduction to the History of Relations Between Islam and the West) (Published by İnsan, 2016; translated into Arabic, Albanian, Bosnian, Chinese, Kazakh and Serbian.)
• Barbar, Modern, Medeni: Medeniyet Üzerine Notlar (Barbarian, Modern, Civilized: Notes on Civilization) (Published by İnsan, 2018; translated into Arabic and Albanian)
• Perde ve Mana: Akıl Üzerine Bir Tahlil (Shade and Meaning: An Analysis on Wisdom) (Published by İnsan, 2020)
• Açık Ufuk: İyi, Doğru ve Güzel Düşünme Üzerine (Open Horizons: On Thinking Sensibly, Properly and Kindly) (Published by İnsan, 2021)
• Gök Kubbenin Altında (Under the Heavens) (Published by Mecra Kitap, 2022; translated into Azerbaijani Turkish)
• Mulla Sadra (Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Yumuşak Güç ve Türkiye’de Kamu Diplomasisi (Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in Turkey Perceptions: Journal of lnternational Affairs) 15.3 (2011): 5-23
• “Turkish Foreign Policy: Framework, Values, and Mechanisms” (Türk Dış Politikası: Çerçeve, Değerler ve Mekanizmalar) lnternational Journal 67.1 (2021):7-21
• “Debating Turkey in the Middle East: the Dawn of a New Geo-political lmagination?” (Türkiye'yi Orta Doğu'da Tartışmak: Yeni Bir Jeopolitik Tahayyülün Doğuşu), lnsight Turkey (2009): 83-96
• "After the coup attempt, Turkey's success story continues'' (Darbe Girişimi Sonrası Türkiye'nin Başarı Hikayesi Devam Ediyor), lnsight Turkey 18.3 (2016): 11
• War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad (İslam’da Savaş ve Barış: Cihadın Kullanımı ve İstismarı); Cowriters: M. Ghazi bin Muhammad and M. Hashim Kamali (Cambridge: The lslamic Texts Society, 2013)
• Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science and Technology in lslam, 2 volumes (Oxford University Press, 2014)
• Mulla Sadra, The Book of Metaphysical Penetrations, A Parallel English-Arabic Text of Kitab al-Masha’ir (Editor: İbrahim Kalın, Brigham Young University, 2014|)
His hobbies include photography and music. He composes and professionally performs Turkish folk music.
