Associate Professor of History Howard Eissenstat was featured by several media outlets, using his expertise in Turkish affairs to weigh in on the country’s economic status, elections, and foreign relations.
He shared the likelihood of a rise in foreign direct investment in Turkey in an article published by Yahoo! Finance and was quoted by Reuters in a story about Turkey's attempt to rebuild its economy and entice foreign investors.
He was also featured in an article published by the Financial Times about the Turkish government's prosecution of Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu. In articles published by France24.com and NewYorkTimes.com, he discussed nationalism and Turkish elections.
“Political identification is very ‘sticky,’ and doesn’t easily come undone because of new information or experience. Erdogan’s emphasis on nationalism, terrorism, and nefarious Western plots isn’t window dressing for many voters: it is at the core of their worldview.”
In articles published by VOAnews.com and The WashingtonPost, he shared insight into Turkish-U.S. relations and global authoritarianism. During interviews ElDiario.es with Swedish Public Radio, he weighed in on Swedish accession to NATO.
Eissenstats's recent work has focused increasingly on contemporary Turkish domestic and foreign policy, especially on issues of rule-of-law, minority rights, and the reshaping of political culture under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). At St. Lawrence, he teaches courses on Middle Eastern history and politics and in the First-Year Seminar (FYS). In addition to traditional academic work, Eissenstat served for over a decade as a Turkey Country Specialist for Amnesty International-USA. He has lectured at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. military, and the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, as well as given testimony to the Canadian Senate and offered briefings to Congressional Committees.