Gönül Tol is the founding director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkey Program and a senior fellow with the institute’s Black Sea Program. She is the author of Erdogan’s War: A Strongman’s Struggle at Home and in Syria. 

Tol has taught courses at the George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Studies and the National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs on Turkey, Islamist movements in Western Europe, world politics, and the Middle East. She has written extensively on Turkey-U.S. relations, Turkish domestic politics and foreign policy, and the Kurdish issue. She is a frequent media commentator. Tol holds a BA from Middle East Technical University and an MA and a PhD from Florida International University.