Toni Alaranta is a Senior Research Fellow in the European Union research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Before joining FIIA in the spring of 2014, Alaranta conducted his post-doc studies at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey, and at the Tallinn University in Estonia. His areas of expertise include Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies, in particular Turkey’s relations with the EU, the US and Russia, the Kurds in international relations, the Middle East in world politics, Europe-Middle East relations, the Cyprus question, strategic cultures, and political Islam. Alaranta’s most recent peer-reviewed monograph is Turkey’s Foreign Policy Narratives: Implications of Global Power Shifts (Springer, 2022). Previous books include National and State Identity in Turkey: The Transformation of the Republic’s Status in the International System (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), and Contemporary Kemalism: From Universal Secular-humanism to Extreme Turkish Nationalism (Routledge, 2014).
He has also published the first Finnish-language political history of Turkey, titled Turkin historia: Atatürkista Erdoğaniin (History of Turkey: from Atatürk to Erdoğan) (Gaudeamus 2019). Together with Wolfgang Mühlberger, Alaranta has co-edited a book on the use of political narratives in the contemporary Middle East, titled Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa: Perceptions of Instability and Conceptions of Order (Springer, 2020).
Alaranta defended his doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki in 2012 (‘The Enlightenment Idea of History as a Legitimation of Kemalism in Turkey’), received his Lic. Phil. degree from the University of Turku in 2008, and his MA degree, also from the University of Turku, in 2005.
Expertise
Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies, in particular relations with the EU, the US and Russia; the Kurds in international relations; the Middle East in world politics; Europe-Middle East relations; Cyprus question; strategic cultures; political Islam
Degrees
Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, 17.1.2012
Major: Political History
Licentiate of Philosophy, University of Turku, 12.8.2008
Major: General History
Master of Arts, University of Turku, 09.6.2005
Major: General History
Language skills
Finnish, English, Turkish