Dr. Sinem Cengiz is a Research Assistant at the Gulf Studies Center of Qatar University, where she specializes on the foreign policy-making within the Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCC), socio-political transformations across the Gulf, and the evolving Turkish-GCC relations. Her recent work focused on how the changes and continuities in the policies of the Saudi and Kuwaiti leaderships have influenced the nexus of relations between the state and business elites. Having born and grown up in Kuwait, Cengiz has also lived, worked, and studied in other GCC states, Turkey, and EU member states.

Cengiz earned her Ph.D. from the department of Area Studies of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara in 2024, with a dissertation on GCC states’ foreign policy-making. Cengiz has a prolific publication record, including two books: “Turkish-Saudi Relations: Cooperation and Competition in the Middle East” published by Gerlach Press in 2020, and “The Making of Contemporary Kuwait: Identity, Politics, and Its Survival Strategy” published by Routledge in 2024. She is currently working on her forthcoming book exploring the relations between the GCC states and Turkey during the Syrian Crisis. Her scholarly output spans dozens of book chapters and journal articles covering topics of history of the GCC states, security dynamics in the Arabian Gulf, and socio-economic shifts across the region.

Cengiz is also a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Gulf International Forum (GIF). She actively contributes to the Forum through panel moderations on Gulf affairs, with a particular focus on Turkey-GCC relations, as well as through publications exploring the dynamics of society and culture within the GCC. Cengiz is also known through her weekly columns published in Saudi Arabia’s largest English language daily, Arab News, since 2016, where she writes on Turkey’s foreign policy. Cengiz has written extensively on the Gulf for numerous outlets, including the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, Gulf International Forum, Amwaj.media, Afkar (Middle East Council on Global Affairs), Global Policy, LSE Blogs, Gulf State Analytics, Politics Today, Sharq Forum, Peninsula Qatar, and Independent Turkish.

In addition to her academic track, she holds diplomatic and journalism experiences. Between 2012-2014, she worked as a diplomatic correspondent interviewing foreign presidents, ministers, ambassadors and the heads of the political parties. Between 2014-2015, she contributed to Al Arabiya as a weekly columnist. Before joining Qatar University, Cengiz worked at the Embassy of State of Kuwait in Ankara between 2015-2018. In 2018, she joined Kuwait University with a year-long state-funded scholarship on Arabic Language.